So it's a book. Not a film, not a day at the beach, not a party. James Joyce's (recently more public-domained) Ulysses is set across the single day of June 16 in 1904. And on June 16 every year, Bloom lovers (like Stephen Fry) get together to read the book out loud, attempting to squeeze it into a single day themselves. This year's Irish odyssey is being brought to life with the first Bloomsday on Bondi. Leaving you with film, Guinness, and a bit of beach to go with your book loving. It's a drop-in, drop-out affair, with music and beer on tap throughout the day, and a midday, free reading followed by a screening (also free) of Nora, starring Susan Lynch and Ewan McGregor (possibly only once before screened in Sydney). Before lunch, the opening chapters meet Buck Mulligan's Breakfast and after seven O'Punsky's Theatre offers up the day's climactic reading. Breakfast and evening sessions are paid events and need to be booked. Can't catch it at Bondi? Listen to the BBC version the day after or download the original. https://youtube.com/watch?v=JT367gsMEvo
The Lunarcade is rolling into town this week and you had better be concerned. A circus of madness and joy, of lateral thought and digital poetry, Lunarcade will have you prying open your ribcages and allowing the child inside to leap bloodily for the nearest game controller. Landing in Serial Space for just seven days, Lunarcade is an international festival of independent games that are putting the art back into artificial intelligence. The theme for the Sydney season is 'Spatial Narrative', and audiences are invited to take part in games both completed and in-development that engage storytelling practices in real and virtual spaces. Heavily represented are games that place more focus on exploring alternate worlds, with almost none of the bloodshed that has become the opiate of mainstream gaming masses. In place of the lust for gunfire, you have atmospheric, taut mysteries that unfold in realtime. Already available for purchase is Dear Esther, a ghost romance by Dan Pinchbeck that often feels like you're reading a novel hidden in beautiful graphics. Equally seductive is the yet-to-be-completed Lifeless Planet, which plunges you into the suit of an American astronaut exploring a distant, presumed uninhabited planet, only to find that Soviet Russia got there first. More intriguing, though, may be the emergent tales from the in-progress Memories of a Broken Dimension, with a game world that appears to be glimpsed through an MRI scanner and almost nothing else known about it except for some forum posts about satellite orbits. Similarly, there is the aptly titled TRIP, which all but challenges you to explore its polygon acid kingdom with your sanity intact. Finally, and perhaps the most likely to enthuse with bursts of glee, is the real-space game J.S. Joust, which runs each evening at 7pm. Grab your friends, prepare your slow-speed control, and prepare to make some new enemies before the night is over. https://youtube.com/watch?v=5y1P2BUCeuc
Theatre is the art of the voice, of the story, and of the connection between people to create a temporary community. What is necessary in a city of Sydney's size is that the voices making these connections are not all speaking with the same timbre. One representative of this broadening chorus is the StoryLines Festival — a co-production of bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company, Tamarama Rocksurfers, and the National Institute of Dramatic Art — which has a boutique program featuring artists from African, Indigenous, Islamic and Malaysian backgrounds. At the core of the festival, which is hosted both at NIDA's Parade Theatres and the Bondi Pavilion, are three plays written by award-winning Australian playwright Justin Fleming: A Land Beyond the River, Junction, and Coup d'Etat. However, surrounding these works are exhibitions and a public forum, hosted by James Valentine, that seek to connect communities throughout Sydney via the arts. Found herein are works from Sarah Barker, Steven Floyd, the Villawood Refugee Centre and the Kinchela Boys' Home, all presented under the title 'Voices and Visions'. As well as these cultural events, the StoryLines Festival is supporting fundraising for South Sudan Educates Girls and the establishment of the Kinchela Boys' Home Belonging Place. The StoryLines Festival runs from July 31 until August 5 at NIDA Parade Studios, and from August 8-26 at Bondi Pavilion.
It was the late Robert Hughes who asked: “What does one prefer? An art that struggles to change the social contract, but fails? Or one that seeks to please and amuse, and succeeds?” Following the downfall of the Soviet bloc more than twenty years ago, the question of changing the social contract fell out of the international conversation entirely. It wasn’t until the Global Financial Crisis and the Occupy movement that the other 'c' word (capitalism) returned to the collective vocabulary, and suddenly even Time magazine was asking whether Karl Marx was right after all. These questions have finally trickled down to the art world, which is often concerned more with such incisive issues as the musical abilities of Laurie Anderson’s dog. Everything Falls Apart (Part II) is a curated exhibition about the collapse of political systems, and it arrives at a time when the social order seems more threatened by its own myriad internal contradictions than by outside dangers like terrorism or invasion. As such, the show’s strength lies in its portrayal of an empire crumbling from the inside. Its weakness is that solutions and alternatives to capitalism’s crisis are only remotely alluded to, perhaps due to a fear of reinforcing the idea that political art is necessarily preachy, myopic and didactic. Vernon Ah Kee’s four channel video work Tall Man stands out as a confronting reminder that Australia’s colonial nature does not lie in some mythological, distant past, but continues into the present. The video is accompanied by two spectacular close-up large-scale portraits of an Aboriginal man whose steely and unashamed gaze is profoundly moving. It's a reminder that contemporary artists can talk about the things that should matter in a universal and human way that doesn't alienate audiences. The show is accompanied by a symposium entitled 'Another World' on Friday August 17 (free, 10am-4.30pm) which discusses the role of art in a volatile society, and three free film screenings of New Zealand doco Patu! by Merata Mita (details here). Image: Tall Man by Vernon Ah Kee, 2010
The Nicholson Museum’s Lego Colosseum was a big hit last year. Vast and ambitious — on a Lego scale — the Colosseum was a cutaway of the famous Roman monument rendered in Danish brick by certified Lego Professional Ryan McNaught. This year, the Museum has commissioned McNaught to return to build a new ancient Mediterranean archaeological construction: the Lego Acropolis. The real Acropolis is a hill towering above Athens, whose most famous, ancient resident is the Parthenon. You can see the real one in Athens, a full-size fake one in Nashville and now the Lego version here in Sydney. The real Parthenon has been a temple, a church, a mosque and gunpowder storage. (And the building only became a ruin when the storage thing collided with a Venetian cannonball.) It’s also the object at the centre in one of the best-known, public archaeological debates. (In fact, this one will feature a Lego Lord Elgin.) This one is unlikely to become the centre of debate, but it should make for some pretty interesting conversation, nonetheless. The Acropolis will have a grand opening Saturday, July 6 from 10–4. It comes with Greek soldiers. The Nicholson Museum is open 10–4.30 Monday to Friday and 12–4 the first Saturday of the month.
Don't know your music history? Want to? One of the most public-spirited sidelines of this year's Fringe Festival will be the 2SER-fronted series of musical evenings at new festival hub Emerald City Garden Bar. Stepping in for former festival focus 5 Eliza, this new venue brings the Fringe to the Seymour Centre courtyard, offering weekend DJs and free Friday night Fringe teaser nights to whet your appetite for the week to come. In the History of.. series, two hours across three September Thursdays will feature 2SER presenters and friends to shepherd you through key DJs, Motown and Afro-Caribbean beats. The series comes with evenings of Hip Hop (12 September), Funk & Soul (19 September) and Rhythm Out of Afrika (26 September) at 7pm. Read the rest of our top ten picks of the Sydney Fringe Festival 2013.
Daniel Mudie Cunningham is a Sydney-based artist, curator, writer and cultural critic, currently the chairman of dLux MediaArts and senior curator at Artbank. His works draw on and rethink the image streams of art history, everyday life, popular culture and fandom, demonstrated mainly through video and performance. In 2012 his piece Funeral Songs — a jukebox that plays a mix of songs people have said they'd like played at their funerals — was included as part of the permanent collection at Hobart's MONA. He's currently working on a project that will reflect on the Cronulla Riots ten years on and how its visual history intersects with the seemingly very different Stonewall Riots of 1969. More immediately, Cunningham is going back in time, re-performing his 1993 work Gender is a Drag at ALASKA Projects in Sydney. It's the 20th anniversary of the work, which also marked the artist's first public performance. Image by Ross Cunningham.
Every year, pioneering artists, activists and thinkers come together to collaborate on how to better our world at The Creative Time Summit in New York City. This occasion is viewed by over 4000 live audience members and watched online by more than 30,000. If you’re one of the thousands that has tuned in, this year is your chance to be there without having to jump the pond. This year, the curatorial collective Original Affluent Society is bringing the Summit to the Newtown Library in Sydney to explore the same issues on a local level. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Art, Place, and Dislocation in the 21st Century City’, which focuses on the role of art in creating sustainable cities, gentrification and modes of resistance to urban development. The Sydney Program will feature highlights from New York, including a discussion panel made up of speakers such as performance artist Vito Acconci, renowned art theorist Lucy Lippard, Creative Time chief curator Nato Thompson, artist and Occupy activist Michael Premo, My Brooklyn director Kelly Anderson, artist Lucy Orta, Project Row Houses founder Rick Lowe, and more. Local responders include Yellow House co-founder and artist Jonny Lewis, Grow It Local’s Jess Miller, artist Lucas Ihlein and Ian Milliss on Green Bans, and artists Diego Bonetto and Adrian O’Doherty. Following the summit is the Summit Social, a closing party and exhibition held at the local artist-run gallery Archive_Space from 5-8pm on Sunday. Works from artists Keg de Souza, Diego Bonetto & Adrian O’Doherty, and Belem Lett will be on display, as well as live performances from Beth Dillon and James Gatt, and Alex Guthrie. The Sydney Creative Time Summit is a platform for people of all sorts to come together to explore the changing role of art in the world and Sydney in an informal way. So if you want to become a better-informed citizen of the world, then this could be an event worthy of your time.
According to the late, and surprisingly great, film critic Roger Ebert, film noir is a genre that “at no time misleads you into thinking there is going to be a happy ending.” It's bleak, thunderous stuff. But it's an electric and exciting experience, as well. The Museum of Sydney is investigating this dark and smoky genre with an exhibition exploring a bleaker vision of our town after the Second World War, Suburban Noir. The world of the 50s and 60s is so often set out as a notional consumer paradise, slowly changed by the coming of a cultural revolution. A Mad Men idyll transformed by second wave feminism and protests against Vietnam. This is not that story. This is Sydney through a blackened lens. The exhibition promises a Sydney of isolated moments, gathered through archives of old police photographs from the 50s and 60s. These are stark images of a despondent town. Alongside the original photos, there'll also be artistic interpretation of same from contemporary chroniclers of local byways like Ken Searle, Rhett Brewer and Vanessa Berry, who'll be hanging their own interpretations of these lonely Sydney scenes. Image: Bondi by Rhett Brewer.
The holiday season is quickly approaching, and with it the rat race of gift buying. If you're trying to stay off the commercial path and are looking for unique knickknacks for your peeps, then be sure to check out Etsy's upcoming Christmas pop-up shop. The darling online marketplace for vintage and handmade goods is taking a physical form for just 15 days in November and December. The temporary shop will feature over 300 products from 150 independent artists and skilled craftsmen, including jewellery, art, fashion, kids wear, vintage items and homewares. Shoppers will also have the opportunity to test out their own skills in any of the free DIY workshops and attend demos hosted by the artists and sellers. Specials include flower bomb and ceramics workshops, and 'Man Night' with free haircuts from a professional barber. So if you're in the mood to get a little artsy at Etsy, or just want to find a rad gift, check out their shop in Sydney's CBD. They'll be open daily from 8am to 9pm.
Hitting the snowy slopes of Thredbo can be tough work. After a full day of ski runs, all you probably want to do is relax with drink in hand and contemplate whether or not to push for selection on the Winter Olympics team. Whilst Thredbo may not be able to get you to the pinnacle of winter sports competition, they can put a drink in your hand and then some when Clicquot in the Snow takes over the village from July 29 until August 4. The Veuve Clicquot-sponsored winter celebration will transform the village, decking it out in Clicquot Yellow (don’t worry, there will be no yellow snow) and providing a place to relax that's open to anyone and everyone. There will be an accompanying variety of outdoor and indoor Clicquot-inspired events, which you can book for online. Our picks are Clicquot Snow Croquet, Clicquot Apres-Ski Sessions and the Clicquot in the Snow Picnic. Special Clicquot in the Snow
From humble beginnings to a hugely successful career spanning two decades, You Am I have become veritable legends of Australian music. Their hall-of-fame-calibre resume reads like this: three No.1 albums, seven albums reaching the Australian top ten, countless tours and sold out shows and numerous accolades to go along with it all (despite still being labelled as 'cult favourites'). Tim Rogers, Andy Kent, Russell Hopkinson and David Lane are bringing the jams that made them a classic act, a show for the dedicated fan, performing their albums Hourly, Daily, and Hi Fi Way in their entirety. They are taking the show across Australia and the response has been massive already. Their first Brisbane show sold out, a second has since gone on sale — we wouldn't be surprised if that sold out, too. You'd best make sure it isn't the same in your city (it probably is), so you can score a ticket in time. For long-time fans of the band, this is an opportunity that cannot be missed, for there is no telling if it will come around again soon. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Nwsyr5gAEuM
As far as Henry Miller was concerned, alone time is crucial to creativity. “An artist is always alone,” he wrote, “if he is an artist. What the artist needs is loneliness.” But spending day in, day out, with only your cat for company isn’t always a recipe for inspiration. Luckily, Etsy is well aware of the problem. So, every year, they host an enormous, worldwide Craft Party. Artists and craftspeople all over the planet are encouraged to get together to paint, draw, sculpt, sew and make — with like-minded others. This year, the gathering will be happening on June 6 and the theme is 'Recapture: bring new meaning to your photographs'. You scour the family photo album for your most archaic, treasured, embarrassing and bizarre images and take them with you. Etsy Craft Parties will be held all over Australia. You can organise your own, or to attend one of Sydney's major bashes, book a spot online.
For those of us unable to hang about at Splendour this year, sideshows are the next best thing. Thankfully, Foster The People are among the Splendour acts making their way to Sydney and boy, are we excited for some indie dance pop to lift our Splendourless spirits. FTP's debut album Torches sold nearly two million copies worldwide, and their sophomore effort Supermodel has already produced some incredibly catchy singles, such as 'Best Friend' and 'Coming of Age'. We can't deny we're looking forward to a sneaky singalong to super singles 'Pumped up Kicks' and 'Call it What You Want' — and just generally leaving all our worries at the door (the unashamed blessing of indie dance pop). This Enmore Theatre show is going to be a metric bucketload of fun. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ndzln1UEyf0
Cross-dressing spitfire MC Mykki Blanco is in the country for Dark Mofo, heading north afterward to blow Sydneysider minds at Good God. One seriously multitalented artist, NYC-based Blanco is a rapper, performance artist and poet who grew up listening to riot grrrl music. The significantly internet-hyped New Yorker's setlist will inevitably include writhing party jam 'Wavvy' and heavier tracks like the recently released 'Initiation' — both as likely to intrigue audiences as attract them to the dance floor. Think bass heavy, post-trap anthems with a killer MC at the helm. While Blanco certainly stands out and makes her presence felt, she doesn't aim to make a 'statement' as such; rather fluidly transcending many identities. https://youtube.com/watch?v=w39Fxx10CEI
The Biennale may have wrapped for another two years, but hot on the heels of genre-defying and New York-based art stars is Performance Space's Sonic Social. Hauling in some participatory and experimental ideas, Performance Space is teaming up with the MCA to keep your cultural calendar topped up. The month of June will be studded with sound-based performances scattered throughout the museum. Whether the works be roaming between floors or tucked in discreet nooks, Sonic Social's aim is to respond to the MCA's architecture and activate neglected spaces. Sonic Social will see the formation of temporary communities — both organised and impromptu — from marching bands and dance parties through to support groups and choirs. Recruiting a group of sound savvy artists, Performance Space's programme is about examining the noise threshold of museum etiquette and then violating it. What embarrassing tune do you have lurking in your iTunes library? Requesting a dig through your playlist is Song-Ming Ang with Guilty Pleasures. This work sees Ang act as councillor and confessor, bringing a bit of daggy pop pleasure to high art. Make sure you bring along an incriminating track to be absolved of your trashy listening sins. Weeding out more guilty admissions is Malcolm Whittaker's work Ignoramous Anonymous, a support group for the unsure and the unaware. It's time to fess up that you're out of the loop with what's going on in Ukraine or that you can't spell 'pterodactyl.' It's a shame-free sanctuary for clearing up misconceptions. There's also Michaela Davies' use of Electronic Muscle Stimulation to animate the passive limbs of musicians and produce unconventional sounds. And investigating the tension between regiment and release, Lauren Brincat and Bree Van Reyk unpick the structure of the marching band. Finally, Luke Jaaniste and Julian Day are dishing up Super Critical Mass, a participatory project taking the shape of a 'sonic flash mob'. If you're keen to get involved, nip 'round for rehearsals.
Pulsing synths, addictive percussion and mellow crooning have seen this Perth trio launch from strength to strength, making waves both locally and abroad. From Unearthed beginnings through to shows at Groovin' the Moo and Laneway, Crooked Colours have generated a following hypnotised by their feelgood ambience. These electronica lads are currently on their first ever national tour, promoting the brand spanking new EP, In Your Bones. Hot off the back of sold out shows in Melbourne, Crooked Colours will be touching down at Goodgod Small Club, ready to churn out some tender tunes and audiovisual witchery. Cranking up the tempo, there will also be killer supports from electronica duo Deja, as well as Sydney five-piece and celestial dream pop weavers, I Know Leopard. This is going to be a seriously vibing, all-night dance party, so get down and sweat it out before the boys kick on up north. https://youtube.com/watch?v=UvVPInNtU_Y
It wasn't that long ago that Dylan Baldi was just a kid churning out power-pop ballads from the basement of his parents' house in Westlake, Ohio. Nowadays Baldi's copy of GarageBand is gathering virtual dust. Under the pseudonym Cloud Nothings, the now 22-year-old has replaced the mechanical-sounding backing instruments with a full live band. The change in personnel has also rung in a change in the sound. Out are the bright and upbeat lo-fi sounds of his previous works and in is a dark and aggressive take on the genre. The new sound is prevalent across their latest LP, Attack on Memory — an album that was described by Baldi as being "an attack on the memory of what people thought the band was”. It has taken three full-lengths, but finally Cloud Nothings are set to hit Australia in 2013. Appearing on the already immense Laneway Festival bill, the band has announced two sideshow dates for Melbourne and Sydney. And if YouTube is anything to go by, the new Cloud Nothings live show will most likely leave you sweating for days.
There doesn't seem to be much going on in Iceland these days — well, at least from an international perspective. Of Monsters and Men are the exception to that statement. This six-piece act are one of the biggest Icelandic musical exports that isn't a black metal band, and they have been wowing audiences across the globe with their bright, bubbly, and overwhelmingly cute take on folk. Accordions, glockenspiels, and horns add something uplifting and atmospheric to their catchy creations. Their debut album, My Head Is an Animal, was released earlier in 2012 to critical acclaim. It even managed to get itself into the ARIA Top 50 charts, which we all know is a hard task for anyone who isn't Birds of Tokyo. You'll be able to catch it all in their debut Australian appearances in 2013, as they venture to our shores for the Laneway Festival and two exclusive shows in Melbourne and Sydney. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ghb6eDopW8I
Iggy Pop is a legend's legend. The American juvenile delinquent teamed up with the only other guys in his midwest town who liked the Velvet Underground to form the Stooges. Then the Ramones and a dozen other seminal bands formed based on being the only guys in their town who liked the Stooges. Back in the day, Iggy rolled around on stage, shirtless, covered in honey, peanut butter, and glitter (or all three) and invented crowd surfing (which he did standing up ). Though now much older, the Godfather of Punk still seems largely averse to wearing shirts. This is what he and his band of legends look like rocking out nowadays, with Minuteman Mike Watt on bass. But does their music still hold up? Oh yes. The Stooges are playing the Hordern, and this may be your last chance to see them live in Oz.
Campfire Collective is a boutique arts production group, and they’re sticklers for doing things properly. That means they make new stuff happen that otherwise just wouldn't exist — switched-on, intelligent, DIY kind of stuff. Lately, they've curated a season of Late Night Library, organised a bunch of alternative stand-up comedy nights, and hosted storytelling workshops for writers and performers to hone their skills. Now they're turning over the stage to you. Forget that it's in a library; Bites After Work is a night where real people tell real stories around the proverbial campfire. At Storytelling 102, the collective tips, techniques and tricks to help you tell your story. It's free, but book online before 5pm Monday or join the stand-by queue on the night.
It might be a blazing stereotype of a nation and its people, but Italians are passionate. They know food, they know wine, they know love and, boy, do they know drama. For all of the above pictured on celluloid, head along to a Palace Cinemas late September and October for the Lavazza Italian Film Festival. This annual celebration of the creative talents of Italian filmmakers is always a sight to behold. Topping this year's fest is the comedy hit Welcome to the North (Benvenuti al nord), the sequel to Welcome to the South that won the Nastri d'Argento Award for Best Screenplay. Exclusive preview screenings of Woody Allen's new film, To Rome with Love, starring Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody himself (among a cast of other familiar faces) will also feature at the festival. Other standouts are Caesar Must Die (Cesare Deve Morire), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, and the divorce comedy A Flat for Three(Posti in Piedi in Paradiso). Italian comedies are big and bawdy, dramas are dark and insular, and romances make you want to find the closest person and make sweet passionate love. Nothing is sedate; Italian films are always life on steroids in the best possible way, so make sure you don't miss this highlight of the international film calendar. Image from Welcome to the North.
Priests of the marriage between indie rock and folky world music, Zach Condon and his band Beirut are returning to our shores for a third time this November. Since releasing his critically lauded debut album Gulag Orkestar at the tender age of 19 and following it up one year later with the unashamedly Francophilic The Flying Cup Cub, then-solo Zach Condon has decided to get inspired by things other than snowy European winters. His 2011 release The Rip Tide was influenced instead by a snowy upstate New York winter, with Condon voyaging inward rather than to old-world Eastern Europe. For his journey to the somewhat sunnier Harvest Festival later this year he's re-amassed the relative mainstayers of his ever-changing band, and together they're playing a string of sideshows in November. Voyage yourselves over to the 2042 postcode on November 14th to catch the Sydney leg of this musical nomad's ceaseless world tour. https://youtube.com/watch?v=sX7fd8uQles
The Sydney Architecture Festival 2012 is so much more than just a celebration of our city’s architectural heritage. Closely connected to the Super Sydney project, it seeks to open a discussion the future of our diverse and continually evolving metropolis. The programme contains the usual tours and peeks inside the city’s gems you would expect — including the biennial Sydney Open — but it goes far beyond this with a plethora of talks, exhibitions and activities taking place throughout Sydney and its surrounds. These explore the challenges that collective living poses, both social and environmental. Innovators from Australia and elsewhere offer creative solutions from a whole range of perspectives and provide an excellent opportunity to learn about urban planning and our future. The time is yet to come for our wonderful city, as it works to find its identity and share its wealth with all. But that time is near. Though the issues of affordability, housing and transport continue to beset us, great changes are most definitely afoot. Image: 1 Bligh St, looking up, Courtesy DEXUS, DWPF & Cbus.
His soulful voice could stir emotion even if he was speaking gibberish, but Willis Earl Beal's story is also well worth a listen. In display of grassroots ascent all but unheard of these days Beal found fame after he found himself living on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he moved from Chicago in 2007 to try land a job. He eventually found one at a motel, and in a moment of Carly Rae Jepsen audaciousness scattered hand drawn flyers listing his phone number and address: "My name is Willis Earl Beal. Call me and I'll sing you a song. Write to me and I'll draw you a picture." Found Magazine called him, interviewed him and featured his flyer on the cover, and three years later his debut album of home recordings, Acousmatic Sourcery, was released. The most interesting thing about this guy though is what he might do next. And that's what you'll get a hint of come January. https://youtube.com/watch?v=0dmeK01Nm48
p>When playwright Robert J Merritt first saw his script The Cake Man performed, he was wearing handcuffs. An inmate of Long Bay jail at the time, he had been let out for opening night, on the condition that he did not stray from the watchful eye of police guard. The entire script had been written in incarceration. The Cake Man is as potent for its historical significance as it is for its tragic yet poetic portrait of European paternalism from an Aboriginal perspective. It was the very first full-length stage production presented by the National Black Theatre, which, in 1975, moved into a run-down Redfern terrace with a mission: to deliver hard-hitting Indigenous theatre. The Cake Man's menacing opening scenes are a fitting starting point for the realisation of such a vision. A group of black dolls crowds around a humpy — representing a simplistic, Eurocentric portrait of life in 'terra nullius' — only to be interrupted by three white missionaries. The condescending preaching of so-called 'Enlightenment' ends in a brutal murder by rifle. We leap forward in time — into the world of an Aboriginal family, living on a mission in Cowra, where poverty and the delusion of affluent, urban dreams are the consequences of invasion. While Sweet William (Luke Carroll) grapples with alcohol addiction, his strong but misguided wife Ruby (Irma Woods) seeks consolation in the Bible and his son, Pumpkinhead (a rather charming James Slee), engages in petty theft. Director Kyle J. Morrison handles the script deftly, emphasising the dynamic created by the interspersing of rich monologues with domestic drama. The writing, though slightly laboured from time to time, is at its strongest when in full poetic flight, interweaving psychological struggles with natural and mythical imagery. Carroll delivers a particularly charismatic and powerful performance, displaying impeccable timing for both tragic and comic impact. "It's not that I just want my culture back. It's not as simple as that," he explains, the script acknowledging that coming to terms with contact history cannot be articulated in platitudes but involves a complex struggle — philosophical, emotional and temporal — between two competing realities. Stephen Curtis's set, subtly lit by Jenny Vila, is rustic and sparse, comprised of wood and metal furniture. It's a convincing interpretation of context that keeps a burning focus on the human drama. This production — a collaboration between Belvoir and Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company — is evidence of The Cake Man's ability to resonate in the 21st century: a moving, disturbing unravelling of irretrievable loss not devoid of a glimmer of hope. Image by Heidrun Lohr.
Some of the world's fringe festivals go for curation, featuring the cream of the crop of local and touring indie talent. Others open their doors wider, allowing for the truly weird, unexpected or unconnected a chance to step under the spotlight and make a lasting impression. The Sydney Fringe Festival falls mainly into the latter camp, with its bewildering and Bible-thick program containing the wonderful, the luckless and every inflection in-between. The independent festival has grown into the city's largest alternative arts event, spanning most of September and including the media of visual arts, film, digital arts, theatre, music, comedy, musical theatre, circus/physical theatre, dance, cabaret, books, kids and family shows, poetry, food and wine and things just plain 'other'. The festival is spread out over five 'creative villages' mainly centring around the Inner West, and this year welcomes a new festival hub, Emerald City garden bar. Located in the Seymour Centre courtyard — in front of a key Fringe venue and a popular spot during summer's Courtyard Sessions — the late-night garden bar will give the sprawling festival a social heart, in the vein of the Sydney Festival's Festival Garden or Adelaide Fringe's famed Garden of Earthly Delights. Also among the new venues is Eliza's Juke Joint (at the old 5 Eliza festival bar); the Dendy Cinema car park, which will host the Artcore Guerilla Artfair; and the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, transformed into Camp Super Happy Sunshine Fun, a thing that we're assured is for adults (yay!). Comedy will continue to be based in the Factory Theatre, while Marrickville will also lead in the live music stakes, with artists such as Abby Dobson in the Camelot Lounge. "We have discovered hundreds of hidden gems within the city, not only focusing on a terrific arts program but opening up to artisan food, crafts and sub-cultures," says Sydney Fringe Festival spokesperson Kerri Glasscock. "We have unlocked the city and invite you all to join us in celebrating the wonderful world that is Sydney’s fringe." Want to know the latest from the Fringe? Check out our Sydney Fringe Festival Diary. For our top predictions, there's the ten best Sydney Fringe Festival events.
Started in 2007, Underbelly Arts is the festival weekend that's a fortnight, that's a biennial. Probably Sydney's leading event for fresh interdisciplinary and interactive art, it is better known to audiences as that one big day of playtime on atmospheric Cockatoo Island. But Underbelly Arts doesn't spend two years sleeping; it uses that time to foster the development of new work, which you can now sample. The festival is divided into two crucial parts. The second part — the Festival weekend — consists of two days of performances, art and adventure for the visiting public. But before that, you're also invited to the first part — the Lab — where you can see the artists put their work together, workshop, test and reassess their ambitions for the festival itself. The Lab runs July 24–31 and is free, with tours kicking off daily at 3pm. All the artists will have something to show, but one surely worth seeking out during the Lab is Warren Armstrong's Forms of Thought. Using a 3D printer in combination with sensors attached to your head to, yes, print out your thoughts, it's the kind of installation you'll have trouble getting close to at the Festival but might actually get to try at the Lab. Similarly, this is a good chance to examine Michaela Davies' Game On, which will let the audience control involuntary boxers being moved through electric muscle stimulation. The Festival weekend on August 3 and 4 is ticketed, and tickets are on sale now. The Festival sold out last time around and, all in all, it's an even bigger lineup 2013. Read more about eight pioneering Underbelly Arts projects in our feature. By Zacha Rosen and Rima Sabina Aouf. Image by Dylan Tonkin.
You may have heard that performance art is dead. In fact, it was murdered recently by the godmother of performance art herself, Marina Abramovic. The epic fail occurred at MoMA in New York, when she got Jay-Z to rap his art-inspired song called 'Picasso Baby' at her whilst walking around emoting on a white square. It looked like the most awkward thing ever. It's actually almost too embarrassing to post this visual evidence that such a thing happened. But we also can't not. Anyway, who needs MoMA when you've got Sydney's PACT Centre for Emerging Arts? And who needs Marina Abramovic when you've got Rebecca Cunningham and Nicola Morton curating exist-ence 5, a whole festival of actually good live art, action art and performance art? Brisbane artist-run initiative EXIST started the exist-ence festival in 2008, with the aim of developing live art audiences. In 2013, they're expanding to include partnerships with PACT in Sydney and A is for Atlas in Melbourne. The Sydney line-up is exciting enough to make you want to stage your very own happening (do it) and includes John G Boehme (Canada), Henrik Hedinge (Sweden), Bonnie Hart (Australia), Naomi Oliver (Australia) and Sandra Carluccio (Australia), with more to be announced. There's also a program of free artist talks, presentations and discussions featuring some of the country’s biggest live art heavyweights including Julie Vulcan, Rebecca Cunningham, John G. Boehme, Henrik Hedinge, Bonnie Hart, Naomi Oliver, Sandra Carluccio, John A. Douglas, Sarah Rodigari, David Capra, Jess Olivieri, Boni Cairncross, Jodie Whalen.
There are complicated ways to explain how 3D printing works. Imagine a ream of papers that you cut one by one. No wait, imagine a turkey baster full of glue. No, let's talk about additive manufacturing or melting stuff with lasers. But, honestly, this is a technology that's just going to do Star Trek things before too long. It’s just that the technology isn’t there yet. In the meantime, though, there are plenty of cool things 3D printers can do and Object is giving you a chance to check them out during [Ctrl][P] Objects on Demand. During the show, Object will have nine 3D printers adorning its gallery space, with an exhibition, a talks program, the chance to print yourself out in a 3D photo booth and artists in residence explaining how 3D printers help them make their work work. Program details will be up soon at the [Ctrl][P] website. Object is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm. Image: Asiga, Image Courtesy of the Artist (COTA).
Who is Barbara Cleveland? That's the point of the latest video piece by Brown Council, a portrait in honour of one of Australia's infinitely talented yet often forgotten performance artists. This is Barbara Cleveland seeks to define Cleveland, a performance artist who disappeared mysteriously in 1981. This video installation explores the voice of Cleveland with care and intrigue, bringing to light a mythic feminist, unfairly left out of the Australian art history books. Blending fact with fiction, history with memory, the piece also delves into an exploration of art history on the whole. Namely, who is written in and out of it? And why do these calculated misrepresentations even occur? This is Barbara Cleveland is the work of Brown Council, a company renowned for national and international projects, with recent showcases featured among the likes of Cambridge Junction (UK), Forest Fringe (UK) and Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney). This Is Barbara Cleveland is part of the You're History season, something of a birthday party for Performance Space, but don't worry about bringing a gift. They're actually giving you the presents: wrapped-up pieces of performance, visual art, dance, music and more, celebrating their big 3-0. Also showing is the bite-sized art of 30 Ways with Time and Space, the journey into mad methodologies in The Directors' Cuts, a creative send-off to analog TV and plenty more.
Have you ever seen a show and wondered what the heck was going on in the mind of the director? The Directors' Cuts at Carriageworks will offer audiences a rare glimpse into the inner-workings of the directorial mind, inviting nine former directors to reflect on the last 30 years at Performance Space, covering the highs, the lows and all the in-betweens. Over 12 days you can check out a series of live talks, screenings, projected works and performance installations led by some incredibly creative, visionary minds. Not only can you get a taster of what it takes to be a mover-and-shaker in the field of performance art, you can join in. Pet some animals in Angharad Wynne-Jones' A Parliament of Animals session (seriously) and throw back some ouzo with Nick Tsoutas at his night of good conversation and rembetika music. This is a never-to-be-repeated opportunity to experience a potentially eccentric, inevitably interesting behind-the-scenes-retrospection by a very big player in the Australian cultural landscape. Who knows what forgotten gems will be rediscovered? The Directors' Cuts is part of the You're History season, something of a birthday party for Performance Space, but don't worry about bringing a gift. They're actually giving you the presents: wrapped-up pieces of performance, visual art, dance, music and more, celebrating their big 3-0. Also showing is Brown Council's ode to feminist performance artist Barbara Cleveland, the bite-sized art of 30 Ways with Time and Space, a creative send-off to analog TV and plenty more. Wed-Sun 7pm, Saturday screenings 5pm. Tickets range from $10-15 for a single screening to $70 for entry into all nine shows. Members get free entry.
Practise your Cockney accent, rehearse your favourite drunken London tale and prepare for high tea: the British Film Festival has arrived in Australia for the first time ever. There'll be a dozen contemporary features, five 20th-century classics (The Third Man and Lawrence of Arabia among them) and a chance to quiz Eric Bana during a live Q&A session, and a simply smashing opening night party. Here are five of our must-sees: Jump A massive hit at the Toronto International Film Festival and winner of the Palm Springs Festival's Bridging the Borders Award, Jump is a comic thriller set on New Year's Eve in Derry, Northern Ireland. A witty, fast-paced script captures the stories of three troubled individuals, who find themselves entangled by doomed romance, theft and revenge. Good Vibrations This eccentric, unstoppable rock movie comes to the British Film Festival following sold-out sessions at the 2013 Melbourne International Film Festival. Set against Ireland's Troubles of the 1970s, it follows the story of rebellious, maverick music lover Terri Hooley, Belfast's 'godfather of punk', and his determination to show the world the power of the seven-inch single. Dom Hemingway A gangster film in the style of Sexy Beast, Dom Hemingway stars Jude Law as the outrageous, volatile Dom, and Richard E. Grant as his best friend, Dickie. Following Dom's release after twelve years of imprisonment, the two travel from London to the south of France, encountering all number of misadventures along the way, from a car accident to an inevitable femme fatale. Mission to Lars How far would you go to meet your favourite rockstar? In this quirky documentary, siblings Kate and Will Spicer find out when they take their autistic brother, Tom, to Los Angeles to pursue Metallica's Lars Ulrich. Still Life The latest offering from Uberto Pasolini (producer of The Full Monty), Still Life is a drama in the British humanist tradition. A calm, meticulous ex-councillor, John May (Eddie Marsan) enters the lives of a mischievous adventurer, Billy Stoke, and his abandoned daughter, Kelly (Joanne Froggatt).
It’s a rare thing, to see a live theatre audience cry. But when darkness falls on Stop Kiss, tears are streaming down at least two faces in the front row opposite. It’s testament not only to the potency of the script but also to the devastating emotional intensity sustained by the cast. On October 6, 1998, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was tortured and left for dead in a field near Laramie, Wyoming. He was the victim of an anti-gay attack that made international headlines and, ultimately, led to groundbreaking hate crimes legislation. Two months later, on December 6, 1998, Diana Son’s play Stop Kiss made its world premiere at the New York Public Theatre. Such timing meant that the work’s impact was particularly acute. But, even though a homophobic act of horrendous violence drives Stop Kiss’s dramatic arc in part, it is very much a tale of love — told in an extraordinarily smart and sensitive fashion. Late-twenties New Yorker Callie (Olivia Stambouliah) divides her time between her radio traffic reporter job, which she finds meaningless, and her on-off boyfriend George (Aaron Tsindos), to whom she doesn’t want to commit. When she agrees to cat-mind for St Louis export and Bronx schoolteacher Sara (Gabrielle Scawthorn), the two discover a mutual connection that quickly turns into sexual attraction. For the next 90 minutes, Son plays a transfixing game of pass-the-parcel with the audience. Except that she’s the only one doing the unwrapping, and we’re the five-year-olds looking on — part of us thoroughly enjoying the suspense, the other wanting to tear the thing open in one fell swoop. Two narratives run concurrently, one beginning where the other ends. In the first, Callie and Sara grow closer and closer, all the while tiptoeing awkwardly (and occasionally hilariously) around their real feelings, each trying to figure out how to address their undeniable chemistry. The second begins right where it explodes. Callie and Sara have just kissed for the first time when a passerby attacks them, beating Sara so brutally that she’s hospitalised and comatose. Their relationship becomes headline bait and Callie finds herself under media, police and familial scrutiny. Under the brilliant direction of Anthony Skuse (4000 Miles), the Stambouliah-Scawthorn combination is potent — beautifully restrained yet electrically charged. The slightest glance or movement speaks emotional volumes. Stambouliah bubbles with offhand charisma, delivering an infectious balance of city-slicker cynicism and underlying fragility. Scawthorn’s transformation from idealistic primary teacher to potentially brain-damaged victim is utterly devastating. The parallel stories are conducted on the same stage, which serves as Callie’s eclectic ‘90s New York apartment, police station, hospital, waiting room and West Village street. Some incredibly smooth scene changes and clever sound design carry us seamlessly from one world to the other. Two of the actors even double up as musicians: Ben McIvor, who plays Sara’s beleaguered ex, Peter, gets behind the drum kit, while Suzanne Pereira, a sassy witness to the crime, sings several ballads a cappella. Presented by Unlikely Productions, Stop Kiss is the first show in the ATYP 2014 Selects season (previously titled Under the Wharf) and an official 2014 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras event. Despite Matthew Shepard’s tragic death having occurred 16 years ago, the work remains every bit as relevant today. Image by Gez Xavier Mansfield.
What Chris Thile wants to know is this: how is it that anyone can consider Radiohead's '2 + 2 = 5' less staid than Bach's 'Third Brandenburg Concerto'? Why should he be shooshed for getting loud at a classical concert and yet shout his head off in a rock arena without reprimand? When you see Thile play, you're likely to find yourself asking the same questions. Not only is he a virtuoso mandolinist, vocalist and composer, he also approaches any repertoire — classical or otherwise — with an overwhelming sense that the song is what matters most. His live performances are drenched with a liveliness and rawness that you don't always get when it comes to formal music. Thile's ability to cross genres has seen a Grammy Award-winning collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Stuart Duncan, titled The Goat Rodeo Sessions, as well as the receipt of a MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the 'genius grant'). According to the Independent, he's "the most remarkable mandolinist in the world". You can catch him at one of two shows at the Spiegeltent during the Sydney Festival. He'll be playing pieces from his most recent recording, Bach Sonatas & Partitas Vol. 1, as well as contemporary tunes and originals. Want more Sydney Festival events? Check out our top ten picks of the festival. Image by Brantley Gutierrez. https://youtube.com/watch?v=cXDL6_3gFu0
The Finders Keepers Markets have become something of a byword for adorableness, and with a focus on sustainability, and the artists and designers repping and reaping the profits of their own work, it's basically guilt free (aside from any issues you might have about spending all your money on lovely things). This Autumn/Winter outing of Finders Keepers' biannual Sydney visits is prepared for the cold, with KnitKnit's DIY kits for woolly accessories for first-time knitters and Puddin' Head homewares so your room looks its prettiest while you lean back against your Ourlieu cushions covered in fabrics printed with hand-drawn designs writing out Bespoke Letterpress invitations to your friends to come and drink tea out of delicate little Sandra Bowkett vessels with your creepy/awesome new felt friend from Cat Rabbit. And that is before you start thinking about the fashion and jewellery options, of which there are enough to keep you busy for the whole of either day, and the artists and illustrators vending their wares, of which ditto. Plus bands, if the above was not already enough to warm your heart and your toesies. https://youtube.com/watch?v=W2p8Dv4QNyM
Given the effort they put into creating, curating, collating and copying their wares, it seems kind of weird that the makers of zines would be the kind to abbreviate words. Like, "Okay, guys, we've edited and self-published a niche interest periodical, sure, but we don't have time to pronounce the syllables 'mag' and 'a'. That's where we draw the line!" ? But then again, eccentricity and arbitrary decision-making are part of the beauty of zine culture, wherein anyone with access to words and/or images and a means of putting them together can be a publisher. There are political zines and poetry zines and zines about spoons and zines about people spooning. Often stumbled across in cute indie stores and venues or tracked down online, zines also enjoy a good gathering and the MCA and the Sydney Writers' Festival are, as has become their annual tradition, throwing them a party with this Fair. Head along and do some collecting — you can buy or barter — or just have a look at what people are into and up to.
Funny how some things grow on you: beer, vegemite, boys. It's taken me half a first season to get excited by the plot of Boardwalk Empire. Which is kind of how I feel about the new Cut Copy album, Zonoscope. After a decade of making music together, the Melbournian electro-pop group are back on home turf, with Coachella sweat still fresh under their fingernails, for the Zonoscope Album Tour. Those who fell in love with their 2008 album In Ghost Colours from the first play may not have the patience for Zonoscope. But give it some playtime and you might end up with 360-degree change of heart. You'll start to make sense of the senseless. Swept into a trance, you'll be chanting lyrics in your sleep. The album cover of Zonoscope, which is the third studio album from the group, features a depiction of New York City engulfed by a waterfall, courtesy of the late artist Tsunehisa Kimura. A similar exploration of the surreal embodies the 11 tracks of their latest release. After co-opting the sounds of the last 25 years of British dance, Cut Copy take New York disco by storm, incorporating heavy keys, wordless choruses and drums that sound a bit like traffic. Dan Whitford's searching vocals create an atmosphere of intense longing and emotional tenderness. The boys bring their white-disco light to the Opera House this Sunday as part of Vivid Live.
It is time that the term "dinner theatre" be shaken up and given new meaning. While it may be fun to watch Dracula saw a woman in half while you guzzle spaghetti, there are more fun and involving concepts waiting to appropriate the term. A big contender for this is Wasted, a pop-up restaurant experience that will be hanging out in Ten Buck Alley for a three-night tease in mid-May. The brain-child of chef Douglas McMaster and producer Kym Lenoble, Wasted is a provocative dining experience that invites its guests to not simply consume, but to engage with the food they're eating. It is the nature of the food in particular that is something to get excited about — McMaster's six course menu will take the philosophies of nose-to-tail cooking and sustainable food practices to a whole new dimension. Guests will be introduced to culinary delights that are normally thrown away during conventional meal preparation, a practice that leads to NSW producing around 800,000 tonnes of food waste a day. This is what we should expect when we think of "dinner theatre" — a full engagement of the senses and intellect with food, fellow guests and staff all participating to produce a collaborative evening that leaves everyone feeling fulfilled in body and mind. Book a seat immediately, because this pop-up will be gone quicker than a council collection. And, for an extra $50 you can match wines to every course. It would be a crime to waste all of that grape juice, after all.
It's fair to say that I didn't exactly shine in my year of university-level English. I quickly discovered that stern academics and huge reading lists weren't for me and got the hell out of there. Not so for the protagonist of this drama, Vivian Bearing, who possesses both a PhD and a glittering career specialising in one of the trickier 17th century metaphysical poets. The only thing blocking her path to unprecedented academic glory is a slightly more serious condition than mine: advanced ovarian cancer. Such a sober tale as this takes a great sensitivity to tell, which playwright Margaret Edson delivers, but the brilliance of this work is given away in its title. The script specialises in a generous kind of intellectualism, where witticisms and profound poetics set the bar high yet are framed to make sure everyone can jump over. The successful translation of this to stage is largely in the hands of the lead, Karen Bayly, whose performance is exceptional. Also worthy of mention is James Croke's efficiently aesthetic set design, which frames the piece succinctly while allowing it to develop in unexpected ways. Clever, cheeky and just plain funny, W;t puts heart and head in the same room and finds they have a pretty inspiring conversation. Image by Bob Seary.
There's an image that clearly comes to mind when listening to Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen. It's something akin to a scene from one of Tim Burton's animations: skeletons dance gaily in graveyards, crows cry tunefully looking over barren fields and pirates hold mugs of ale, fighting in between each chorus. Is that just me? Or is that exactly what these creative souls are after? More than just musical performers, this act is the true definition of all-out entertainment. At one of their shows you can expect cabaret-style interactions with the audience, dark tales of woe told between musical numbers and a variety of gypsy, balkan and (dare I say) pirate-inspired tunes which may not necessarily be toe-tapping but will certainly sweep you away to the rain-soaked galley of a travelling ship or the love-lost misery of a drunk in a bar. You may recognise lead singer Mikelangelo and his perfectly waxed quiff from La Clique; it was with this travelling troupe that he managed to score the Green Room Award and London Time Out Critic's Choice at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For those of you with a penchant for devilishly handsome, darkly humoured and desperately desirable musical entertainment, pull out the oars and row down to the Opera House Studio. https://youtube.com/watch?v=syAOF9tL-tw
Winterland is Sydney's coolest festival. Get it? Coolest? Winterland? Yep, awesome. There's just nothing like a good kitschy pun. Especially when said kitschy pun is accompanied by ice skating, mulled wine, German bratwurst, Italian hot chocolate (that's the thick one), karaoke, Winterland markets curated by the Finders Keepers, evenings of live music, a crafternoon and oh so much more wintery goodness. Throughout July, CarriageWorks is celebrating winter in Sydney by making it good and European-like. Forget about thinking that ice skating is lame; it's not. It's rad. Thursday nights are for live music (July 29 2SER presents new and unsigned bands), Friday nights are for discos on ice, Saturday nights are for music, karaoke and changing the world. The ice rink, markets and cafe and bar are open on Thursday and Friday nights, all day Saturday and school holidays. And this is all just the tip of the iceberg. CarriageWorks is just about the coldest place in Sydney as it is, so bust out your mittens and get into Winterland.
What better way to celebrate the birth of our majesty the ultimate Queen than at a Bash called Gay, swathed in the get-up of an infant fetishist. Coincidently on the very same weekend every good patriotic Aussie citizen uses the ageing of our venerable queen as an excuse to get thoroughly trolleyed, Absolut Vodka’s infamous night of unbridled mayhem, Gay Bash, turns a whopping four years old (apparently that’s, like, infinity in gay years). With a theme like 'fourth birthday’ and an OshKosh B'Gosh dress code that would have you mugging a pram-dweller for their threads, there’s likely to be some pretty weird, slightly creepy caper on the night. Brace yourselves for clowns, grown men in nappies, fairy bread, lolly bags, pony rides, tantrums and, um, 'traumatic memories'. The soundtrack to the antics will come courtesy of some of Sydney’s finest dukes and dames of the decks including Sirens, Perfect Snatch, Nina Las Vegas & Bad Ezzy, Bloodfart, Levins, Sex Azza Weapon, Booms, U-Go-B, National Treasure, Radge, Pete vs Toby DJs, Nolan Nolan, Meryl Streeptease, Bitch Science, Berko, Goldie & Willard and oh so many more. Given the enormity of this landmark occasion and that every kids birthday party worth its fairy bread needs space to play, the event will take place over two floors of the iconic Oxford Hotel: the Underground and The Polo Lounge. So, if you’re nostalgic for the days when drooling in public was acceptable and screaming to lung capacity got you just about everything you wanted, then don a terry-towelling jumpsuit, come play with the rest of the crazy crew and get involved in a night of serious regression.
11 and 12 tells a modern tale: an accident during prayer leads to a religious debate, then a split which escalates into community conflict. A Western power sticks its nose in, and the story turns truly tragic. Yet this tale is not as contemporary as you might think. The book by Amadou Hampaté Bâ, on which this play is based, describes events which unfolded in Mali during the French occupation around the time of the World Wars. Its wisdom is particularly poignant, however, because these situations and ideas are those which we still struggle with and often fail to comprehend. The production is subtle and slow, requiring great patience from its audiences. We should not be led to think this is a mistake; with extraordinary director Peter Brook at the helm, this tortoise pace is clearly part of the point. That the drama unfolds gently and without much ado is a nod to Tierno Bokar, the Sufi sage of astounding wisdom at the centre of this piece. To counteract this demand, Brook provides us with the moments of blissful visual beauty for which he is renowned: A set consisting of carved wood, red cloth and African sand is moved and shaped to the plot; a journey in a boat of red cloth is a particular treat. Similarly, the music from long-time collaborator Toshi Tsuchitori is astonishing, moving with the action in profound and unexpected ways. This production is a unique meditation and a privilege to witness. Don't miss your chance to catch one of the few performances while it's here. Image by Pascal Victor / ArtComArt.
According to their MySpace page, Surfer Blood don't surf. Neither do their mates, surfer-indie-rock band the Drums. And, come to think of it, neither did the Beach Boys, other than a few waves caught here and there by Dennis Wilson. So if there's no surfing going on, what's with the all the surf references, dudes? Despite the aggressive oceanic cover art on their debut album, Astro Coast, this Florida band mostly steer clear of surfer-rock. Instead, their sound is inspired by '90s guitar-heavy indie-rock acts such as Pavement and Weezer and legendary pop-rock bands like the Who. Their debut single, 'Swim', is the type of stadium rock that gets you headbanging in the car and playing air guitar at the traffic lights, while the rest of the album is a catchy mix of indie-rock-pop with impressive guitar riffs, traces of punk and bursts of Vampire Weekend-ish Caribbean influences. Apparently, when playing live, lead singer John Paul Pitts maintains a poker face throughout his entire set, even when thrashing out the band's biggest anthems. Check it out for yourself when Surfer Blood play their Splendour Sideshow at Manning Bar on August 3. Just don't expect to catch these guys checking out the local froth at Bondi the next day. https://youtube.com/watch?v=QVkgNPK8EQE
Granted, the title lets you know what you're in for, but The Stoning of Soraya M. still manages to leave you feeling utterly undone. Based on the French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam's best-selling book, the film uncovers the horrific true story of Soraya M. (Mozhan Marnò) as it was daringly recounted to him by her grief-stricken aunt Zahra Khanum (Shohreh Aghdashloo). James Caviezel (no stranger to brutal religious rites after his turn in The Passion of the Christ) plays Sahebjam, whose car breaks down on the edge of a dusty Iranian village in 1986, and, while he waits for the repairman, Zahra audaciously takes the opportunity to report the atrocity that occurred only the day before. The moral outrage of writer/director team Cyrus and Betsy Nowrasteh is palpable, infused in a film that may become a little preachy but nonetheless asserts itself as an important document for the world's attention. Aghdashloo is superb, embodying her character with such ferocious passion that it is possible to overlook some of the more clunky lines of dialogue. Marnò is similarly impressive, bringing striking realism to the role of a slighted wife — whose husband wants rid of her to remarry a 14-year-old — and one condemned to death by the most archaic, barbarous means. Unfortunately, other characters fall into stereotypes: a singularly spiteful and calculating husband (Navid Negahban), a conniving Mullah (Ali Pourtash) and a hapless neighbour (Parviz Sayyad) blackmailed into bearing false witness. However, the town mayor (David Diaan) does bring some refreshing ambivalence to a film that otherwise borders on melodramatic misogyny. It should come as no surprise, then, that this film is very heavy going; the lengthy stoning scene will undoubtedly test your mettle. Yet there is something powerful about bearing witness to the true horror of this practice, the experience of which rescues the reality from the realm of nightmare, and in doing so enters its audience into a significant (and tragically contemporary) dialogue. https://youtube.com/watch?v=asH9sUD0A-s
In an Oklahoman hotel room foreboding seediness, Agnes, a fortysomething diner waitress with a face sharp from years of masking misery with vodka and crack, trades the washed-out hospital green of her waitress’ uniform for denim shorts and a white tank top; work is out, time to unwind. Fearing the return of her violent ex-husband only recently released from prison, Agnes unwinds hard. Enter Peter (the metaphorical everyson), a perfectly beautiful boy-man stranger of indiscriminate sexuality, heavy with the psychological scars of soldier-hood. He looks like an angel and so, with ironic inevitability, brings hell. Agnes’s release descends into a chaotic, bloody, bug-infested dystopia of delusional paranoia. Picture This Productions deliver Bug, a play written by dramatist Tracy Letts in 1996, pre his Pulitzer prize. Billed as a dark, comic thriller, Bug imagines the fallout from a rotting America — the first Bush’s war in Iraq and the dirty-handed deeds of the CIA and FBI (referencing the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents, which Timothy McVeigh claimed motivated his bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City not much more than a year before this play was written). Indeed, Peter is posited as John Doe no. 2, McVeigh’s potential but never affirmed accomplice. It is heavy material for a comic play, however dark. This production of Bug is near flawless. In every way. Jeanette Cronin is brilliant as Agnes White and Matthew Walker crescendos heartbreakingly as Peter Evans. Jonny Pasvolsky (Jerry Goss), Catherine Terracini (R.C.) and Laurence Coy (Dr. Sweet) are exceptional accomplices. Director Antony Skuse has assembled a highly accomplished production team, the costuming, voice coaching/direction, music and lighting direction capture every detail (Peter’s physical transformation after intermission painfully highlights how addiction undoes beauty). Amazing. Bug is a play about people at their end (not so much about their transformation). They’ve exhausted all avenues of redemption and are wallowing in their self-made hell, striving for human intimacy but almost stripped of humanity. I want to say it’s terrifying, but it’s not. It’s hopeless. Pure hopelessness tied up with Letts’ silk ribbon of dramatic intelligence and wit. It begs the question of why dramatise such hopelessness? But then, in 1996, the answer to why McVeigh did what he did rarely went beyond “because he is evil”. Through Bug, Letts is the cynically frustrated citizen balking at the hypocrisy of his government and asking for more complex answers. Seriously good theatre. Photo by Tess Peni.
It's hard to fathom Laura Marling as a mere 20-year-old. Before lending her your ears, you could be forgiven for presuming this unassuming, pretty, brunette girl to be more like Lisa Mitchell than Joni Mitchell. But when she performs, it's as if she has summoned the sorrow, regrets and desires of a woman living more towards the end of her time than so close to the beginning. While her first album Alas I Cannot Swim established this young folk songstress as a musician far beyond her years, her recent second album I Speak Because I Can is darker and more sophisticated, filled with poetic nostalgia such as 'Goodbye Old England (Covered in Snow)', 'Hope in the Air' and 'I Speak Because I Can'. Marling weaves lyrical narratives, expressing herself through fictional characters including Odysseus's Penelope and scribes of wartime love letters. Several tracks contain Mumford and Sons-style twangs and banjo riffs, which is not surprising considering she is signed to the same label as the band and girlfriend to lead-vocalist Marcus Mumford. But this is not an indie gossip column (Wait. It's not? -ed). If you managed to catch her at the Sydney Festival earlier this year, you will agree Marling's performance was rousing. Her husky voice never falters; she speaks directly to her audience through song, slicing the intensity every now and then with a dose of witty banter. Marling plays her Splendour sideshow at the Metro Theatre on August 2, joined by Melbourne quartet Boy and Bear, who joined Laura onstage during her last Aussie tour. A second show, with the Maple Trail as supports, has been added on Sunday, August 1, at the Factory Theatre. https://youtube.com/watch?v=lUi9teTRCgk
For 35 years, acclaimed Australian director Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career, Charlotte Gray) has been following the lives of three Adelaide women. What started as a one-off short film documenting what it is to be a 14-year-old in 1975 has become a five-part series, with Armstrong checking in with the girls again at 18, 26, 33 and 47. For those unfamiliar with the project, the opening 25 minutes of the latest installment, Love, Lust & Lies, is devoted to bringing the audience up to date with the lives of best friends Kerry, Diana and Josie. Time brings marriages, children, financial woes and hopeful dreams for the trio in what is a captivating portrait of family, motherhood and aspiration. All three dropped out of school as soon as possible, and the inter-generational consequences resonate profoundly with the women's common wish for a better life for their children. Armstrong captures all with a compassionate and reflexive eye, as she unobtrusively includes herself in the film as a testament to what has become a life-long friendship. Indeed, rather than relegate these women to the proverbial quiet lives of desperation, Armstrong has created a compelling social document. And though there are obviously similarities to Michael Apted's famous Seven-Up series, Armstrong's achievement is unique to Australian cinema, providing both a fascinating social history and a deeply personal account of these three remarkable, ordinary women. https://youtube.com/watch?v=zg4LG5rZMZI
The discontent of Robert Winter, a semi-successful actor, occurs in the twilight of his career. While preparing backstage for a show, a momentous recent event forces him to examine the choices and sacrifices he has made for his craft. William Zappa, an actor who has himself experienced many of the trials and tribulations retold in Winter's story, is both the performer and writer of this piece. This is a dissection of the cult of acting, and for this purpose all an actor's tools are employed: familiar stretches, motivational speeches, warm ups in gibberish and the famous lines of dead white males. Zappa clearly enjoys revealing these absurdities to an audience who may or may not be already familiar with them. Zappa's approach to his character begins with great subtlety — so much so that we are initially tempted to admit that Winter has perhaps made some wrong choices. However, as the plot thickens, Zappa reveals the extraordinary depth of his skill (as well as Winter's), and we long for nothing more than the benefit of watching his performance. Winter's Discontent is an incredibly honest piece which gives rise to some unpredictable and transcendent moments. Zappa's skill is irrefutable, and you should snap up the chance to see him perform this work at the intimate Darlinghurst Theatre.
