Category: Clare Britton

CHAMPIONS, from Form Dance Projects for Sydney Festival. World Premiere, in Bay 17, Carriageworks, Redfern, 17 – 22 January. Martin del Amo, is responsible for Concept and Direction, also, Choreography and Text (along with the Dancers) for CHAMPIONS. He says in the program notes: A commonly held belief is that sport and the arts do not go together. The argument goes that artists often think of athletes as competition-obsessed ‘boofheads’, while in turn, athletes deride artists as self-indulgent ‘wankers’. … CHAMPIONS is a dance piece presented as if it is a sporting event. … The largest of the performing spaces…

Performance Space present, THE FOX AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS, co-written by Alana Valentine and Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, in Bay 20, at Carriageworks, Redfern. 13-22 November. THE FOX AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS is a new Australian work, co-written by Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor and Alana Valentine. Charles “Chicka” Dixon was a leading Indigenous activist. Born in 1928, his role as activist began to find focus during the preparation of the 1967 Australia Referendum, that amended the constitution to include Aboriginal people in the census and allow the Commonwealth to create laws for them; and, among much else, in 1970, he organised the Aboriginal Legal…

MANTLE, a work devised by My Darling Patricia (MDP) at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown. Early September I saw MANTLE 5 or 6 weeks ago at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, at its first performance. When I read about the search, and the limited opportunities available for the “womens” voices in the performing arts in Sydney (Australia) I can’t help but think and believe that this company, My Darling Patricia (MDP), is the epitome, the role model for women (anybody) creating new theatre and performance. Certainly, a leader and consistent inspiration in that field. That the work, for me, is palpably…

  POSTS IN THE PADDOCK presented by My Darling Patricia, produced by Marguerite Pepper Productions in association with Moogahlin Performing Arts for Performance Space, Carriageworks, as part of the EXCHANGE season. POSTS IN THE PADDOCK is a profoundly moving experience. This is the fourth production by My Darling Patricia that I have attended, the others were: POLITELY SAVAGE (2007), NIGHT GARDEN (2009) and AFRICA (2011). Since that first encounter in 2007, with POLITELY SAVAGE at the old Performance Space, I have always anticipated the work with high expectations. All original work, from concept, writing and form exploration, across multi-media usage…

Mogo Zoo present HOLE IN THE WALL at Performance Space, Carriageworks. The production that I saw at B Sharp the other night, PARLOUR SONG, was followed by HOLE IN THE WALL at Performance Space presented by Mogo Zoo. Mogo Zoo seems to be a spin-off group from MY DARLING PATRICIA, with some of the same artists working together in this newer collective: Claire Britton and Halcyon Macleod, for example; although this company has also shown in Sydney another “performance, installation” called THE TENT, (see LIVEWORKS). I put together the coincidence of PARLOUR SONG and HOLE IN THE WALL because both…

Performance Space at Carriageworks presents MY DARLING PATRICIA and their new work NIGHT GARDEN. The last work presented by this “magical” group was POLITELY SAVAGE at the old Performance Space, 2007 and I have been keenly awaiting their new work, whatever it might have been. It was worth keeping in mind and memory. NIGHT GARDEN has been “Developed through residencies at Performance Space, ArtsHouse, Hot House Garden Theatre and Bundanon Artists’ Trust. NIGHT GARDEN continues (their) exploration of the contemporary Australian Gothic through a blend of performance, puppetry, video and installation. This dark tale traces the fractured relationship of a…