Category: Sydney Festival

  Sydney Festival presents The Wooster Group production, THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. 7 -13 January. The Wooster Group grew from Richard Schechner’s The Performance Group in 1980, under the leadership of Elizabeth Lecompte. It works in a deliberate theatrical form of experimental presentation. Its reputation is formidable and the fact that the theatrical explorations/methods of this company have been an inspiration for similar groups such as The Sydney Front (1986) and other participants regularly appearing in the Performance Space repertory – now seen mostly at Carriageworks – is tantamount to their…

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…

Photo by Eric Berry Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta and Sydney Festival presents, HAKAWATI, created by Wayne Harrison, in the El Phoenician Restaurant, Parramatta, 11-21 January. HAKAWATI, is an evening of food and entertainment. It has been inspired by the Middle Eastern ancient tradition of storytelling and breaking bread. In the sophisticated circumstances of the El Phoenician restaurant in Church St, Parramatta a long table, seating 40-50 people, has been elegantly prepared for a four course dinner of Lebanese cuisine. At either end of the table, on a raised platform, an ornate wooden framed armed, high backed, red-velvet chair/throne awaits…

  Belvoir presents a La Boite Theatre Company and Brisbane Festival production in association with Sydney Festival, PRIZE FIGHTER, by Future D. Fidel, in the Upstairs Theatre, at Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills. 6-22 January. This Australian play, PRIZE FIGHTER, has been written by a refugee from the civil war torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Future D. Fidel. It is his first play. It was developed by the La Boîte Theatre Company in Brisbane. In the program notes Mr Fidel tells us, reminds some of us, that the mineral rich DRC has had a reported death toll of 5.4…

Urban Theatre Projects and Sydney Festival present, BANKSTOWN: LIVE. Urban Theatre Projects (UTP) is a theatre organisation that has been developing work – stories – from within a ‘community’, of a community, for the community, in Sydney’s south west for 30-years. BANKSTOWN: LIVE, is the latest project from this company. This work is the only event I attended, in the 2015 Sydney Festival. We caught the train to Bankstown from Bondi Junction, changing at Central, in the late afternoon, and then using our GPS on the phone, walked through Bankstown shopping, restaurant centre and out into the suburbs of Bankstown…

  Photo by Jamie Williams BLACK DIGGERS by Tom Wright presented by Sydney Festival in association with The Balnaves Foundation. A Queensland Theatre Company and Sydney Festival Production, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. I saw BLACK DIGGERS almost two months ago as part of the Sydney Festival. I was so distressed with what I experienced in the Drama Theatre, and yet have such great commitment to the ideals of the project, that how to write about it in a constructive manner became a burdensome issue for me. Now, having seen THE LONG WAY HOME at the…