Wild Things at Sydney Opera House
From towering swings to circus premieres, this inaugural international festival is set to delight kids and grown-ups alike.
Overview
With the winter school holidays about to wrap up, you've probably spent more than a little time over the last two weeks figuring out how to keep your kids' minds occupied. Well, come the spring school holidays, planning out your schedule could prove much easier, as the inaugural Wild Things takes over Sydney Opera House. Best of all, no performance costs more than $49 to attend at this debut international kids festival.
Running from Saturday, September 26–Sunday, October 11, this landmark event unites creative practitioners from leading companies in Europe, North America, the United Kingdom, Asia and Australia. Together, this incredible series of performances, workshops and play activities is designed to captivate young people aged 0 to 14 — and those who still happen to feel young at heart.
The adventure starts outside in the Opera House's Forecourt, where five large-scale, interactive installations and performances are free to attend. Here, Living Sculptures fuses First Nations dance, storytelling and contemporary circus, with Queensland's ARC Circus and the Yugambeh Aboriginal Dancers reimagining the story of how the birds came to get their vibrant feathers.
Other encounters breathing life into the Forecourt include SWING, a nine-metre-tall structure designed for guests young and old looking to get more than a little airtime. For even more action, Puzzle sees Taiwan's Focasa Circus deliver a thrilling 30-minute performance filled with tumbling, handstands, flips, juggling, and human pyramids, all centred on five stackable hollow cubes.
Heading inside, expect an array of nine performances, including eight Australian premieres. For visitors aged six to 18 months, Be Kind offers the ideal introduction to live art, featuring bird songs and luminous juggling that follows the rhythm of the day. Meanwhile, for those aged ten and up, South Korea's Trunk Theatre Project presents Cookies, Ann, Cream, an adventure through Antarctica and the cosmos told through puppetry, shadow and light.
"At its heart, Wild Things is an invitation to be inspired by the extraordinary creativity of artists from around the world who are making work for young audiences. Never before has Australia seen this scale and variety of international performances, play spaces and workshops for kids and their families all in one place," says Tamara Harrison, Sydney Opera House Head of Children, Families and Creative Learning.
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Images: Supplied.
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