In the loop July 31: quick picks

A super loop to tide you over till late August while we’re pumping out the RT116 Arts & Education edition.

Darwin Festival

DasSHOKU SHAKE!, Yumi Umiumare & Theatre Group GUMBO

photo Vikki Shayen

DasSHOKU SHAKE!, Yumi Umiumare & Theatre Group GUMBO

If Spring is taking too long to come to you head north to Darwin and take in the festival. Yumi Umiumare presents the latest work in her DasSHOKU series, DasSHOKU SHAKE!—an absurdist Butoh cabaret created with Theatre Group GUMBO from Japan. Queensland ensemble Polytoxic present their site-responsive performance/installation Trade Winds down at the waterfront. Several touring works land in Darwin: Roslyn Oades’ I’m Your Man, Shaun Parker’s Happy as Larry and Ilbijerri Theatre Company’s Jack Charles vs the Crown. Darwin’s own Tracks Dance Company will present a new work, Zombies in the Banyan Tree, creating “a world of opposing forces, where popular culture and tradition collide” (website). RealTime Managing Editors Keith Gallasch and Virginia Baxter will also be in town reporting on the festival and conducting a workshop with local writers.
Darwin Festival, 8-25 August; www.darwinfestival.org.au

Hydra Poesis, Prompter

photo Sete Tele

Hydra Poesis, Prompter

Arts House Season 2

The second half of the year at Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall is populated with many wonders. Kicking off the season is Prompter by Perth company Hydra Poesis, an ambitious work of “magic-political-(quasi-science-fiction)-realism” (website) involving dance, performance and broadcast (9-18 Aug; see RT97). Side Pony Productions presents The Confidence Man, a Hitchcockian tale acted out by the audience in large masks with headsets (28 Aug-Sept 1). Olaf Meyer works with the building itself in his projection installation Permanent vs Impermanent 2 (28 Aug-2 Sept). Later in the season there are multiple Melbourne premieres: Roslyn Oades’ I’m Your Man (4-8 Sept, see RT107); Branch Nebula, Matt Prest and Clare Britton’s Whelping Box (4-8 Sept, see RT112); Ilbijerri, Belvoir and Version 1.0’s Beautiful One Day (26 Nov-1 Dec) and Andrée Greenwell, Jordie Albiston and Abe Pogos’ music theatre work The Hanging of Jean Lee (7-8 Dec, see the 2006 RT73 interview and RT75 review). There’s also the world premiere of Stephanie Lake and Robin Fox’s A Small Prometheus as part of the Melbourne Festival (15-20 Oct). To round it off the forum Is Art for Art’s Sake? looks at participatory performance making (13 Sept).
Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall and Meat Market, August-December; www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/artshouse

Miranda Wheen, Vitality, Dirty Feet & Chronology Arts

photo Heleana Genaus

Miranda Wheen, Vitality, Dirty Feet & Chronology Arts

Vitality, Dirty Feet & Chronology Arts

Focused on creating opportunities for emerging practitioners these two companies have come together to investigate the relationship between choreographer and composer. Quest, the result of the collaboration between Martin del Amo and Alex Pozniak and performed by Miranda Wheen, was well received during Aurora 2012 (see RT109 and is getting the redux treatment in the upcoming The Little Black Dress Suite, see our Martin del Amo interview). There are also new pieces by the collaborative teams of Kathryn Puie working with Daniel Blinkhorn and Sarah-Vyne Vassallo with Andrew Batt-Rawden.
Vitality, Dirty Feet & Chronology Arts, Seymour Centre, 8-10 August; http://www.seymourcentre.com/events/event/vitality/

Floored, Victoria Chiu (with Amelia McQueen)

photo Lucy Spartalis for Dancehouse

Floored, Victoria Chiu (with Amelia McQueen)

Floored, Victoria Chiu, Dancehouse

Current Dancehouse Housemate Victoria Chiu is about to reveal the results of her labours in Floored. A duet danced by Chiu and Amelia McQueen with sound by Roland Cox, Floored investigates our need for comfort and the slippery-slide into complacency. Chiu trained at the VCA and has worked with choreographers Fiona Malone and Berndate Walong as well as performing and creating works in Geneva, Switzerland.
Floored, Victoria Chiu, Dancehouse, 14-18 August; http://www.dancehouse.com.au/performance/performancedetails.php?id=163

Hedda, This One Show & The Blue Room Theatre

Currently based in Perth, Norwegian actress Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik feels that the current English translations of the Ibsen classic Hedda Gabler are missing something. Actor/director Renato Fabretti and Rovik are producing their own version in which Rovik says she wants to show Hedda as “Ibsen intended. Not a victim, nor an icon for feminist revolt, but a complete woman making a decision about how she will live her life within her circumstances” (press release). Sections of the dialogue will be spoken in Norwegian to convey the emotional intensity of the play’s original language.
This One Show, Hedda, The Blue Room Theatre, 3-31 August; http://blueroom.org.au/

Topology, Ten Hands

courtesy the artists

Topology, Ten Hands

Ten Hands, Topology

Brisbane-based ensemble Topology has just released their 10th album and will be touting their CD wares in a series of not to be missed concert launches in Sydney, Melbourne, Buderim and Brisbane. The album Ten Hands has been collectively composed by the five musicians over the last four years through a process of improvisation and distillation. Violinist Christa Powell says, “When we first got together we were individuals and we’ve spent this many years…getting to know each other. And this piece collectively is an entity” (press release).
Topology Ten Hands Tour: Sydney, Camelot Lounge, Marrickville, 4 August; Melbourne, Chapel Off Chapel, Prahran, 11 August; Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm, 15 August; Sunshine Coast, Matthew Flinders Performing Arts Centre, Buderim, 1 September; http://www.topologymusic.com/

Stuck Pigs Squealing, Night Maybe

photo Sarah Walker

Stuck Pigs Squealing, Night Maybe

Melbourne ensemble Stuck Pigs Squealing’s latest project, Night Maybe, follows Sasha, a girl abandoned on the side of the road by her brother. Her search to find him “peels back the layers of their shifting relationship; past the unreliability of gender, sexuality and both their bodies” (website). Directed by Luke Mullins and written by Kit Brookman the collective promise a “free-fall through the subconscious.”
Stuck Pigs Squealing, Night Maybe, TheatreWorks 15 August-1 September; http://www.theatreworks.org.au/whatson/event/?id=182

Three Lanes, Andrea Keller, Genevieve Lacey, Joe Talia, Capital Jazz Project

courtesy the artists

Three Lanes, Andrea Keller, Genevieve Lacey, Joe Talia, Capital Jazz Project

Capital Jazz Project, Street Theatre

As part of Canberra 100 celebrations, ANU School of Music and the Street Theatre are presenting the Capital Jazz Project featuring over 90 concerts in 10 days. Intriguing groupings include Three Lanes with Andrea Keller on piano, Genevieve Lacey on recorders and Joe Talia on Revox B77, electronics and percussion (7 Aug); The Tawadros Brothers—Joseph on oud (Aarbic lute), James on raq (Egyptian tambourine)—with Steve Hunter on electric bass (4 Aug); and artists-in-residence, The Raah Project, “investigating cross-pollination between diverse modern music genres” (program) performing with a 20-piece ensemble from the ANU School of Music (10 Aug).
Capital Jazz Project, presented by Canberra 100, Street Theatre and ANU School of Music; 2-11 August; http://www.thestreet.org.au/

Soda_Jerk, The Phoenix Portal [2005]

courtesy the artists

Soda_Jerk, The Phoenix Portal [2005]

Dark Matter, Soda Jerk

Movie mash-up mavens Soda Jerk (Dom & Dan Angeloro) have been investigating “the speculative hypothesis that a form of dark matter pervades the star systems of screen culture” (website). This exhibition brings together three of their latest installations in which stars confront their past, present and future selves.
Soda Jerk, Dark Matter, UTS Gallery, 30 July-30 August; http://www.art.uts.edu.au/gallery/current/index.html

Totally Huge New Music Festival

A reminder that the biennial celebration of exploratory music is about to take over Perth, this year also incorporating the International Computer Music Conference. Read RT115 interview with director Tos Mahoney for more details on guests Haco, Alvin Curran, Agostino di Scipio, Speak Percussion, Decibel and Clocked Out. Matthew Lorenzon, who presents the new music blog Partial Durations with RealTime, will be on the ground in Perth reviewing performances for the full duration of the festival as well as mentoring emerging music reviewers.
Tura: Totally Huge New Music Festival; 9-18 August; www.tura.com.au

Ian Potter Cultural Trust 20th Anniversary

The Ian Potter Cultural Trust has given out over 1200 grants in its 20 years of existence. To celebrate the trust is throwing a gala ball and is inviting every one has been a recipient. However IPCT has lost track of some of you. If you’ve received funding from the organiation in the past, check out this link on the website and update your details so IPCT can let you know of all the upcoming celebrations.
http://www.ianpotterculturaltrust.org.au/desperately-seeking

Still in the loop

Janis II, The Commercial Gallery & MCLEMOI Gallery
26 July-17 August
www.thecommercialgallery.com http://mclemoi.com

Owen Wingrave, Sydney Chamber Opera
Carriageworks, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 August
http://sydneychamberopera.com

Shilpa Gupta, MAAP Space
27 July-30 Aug
www.maap.org.au/

Suburban, Ian Strange
NGV Studio, 27 July-15 September 2013
www.ngv.vic.gov.au

Russian Resurrection Film Festival
Sydney, Chauvel Paddington & Event Cinemas Burwood, 24 July-7 August; Brisbane, Palace Centro, 26 July-4 August, Perth, Cinema Paradiso, 1-11 August; Byron Bay, Palace, 2-4 August
http://russianresurrection.com/

SALA
various venues across South Australia, 2-25 August
http://www.salafestival.com/

NMN:Tangents And Cycle ~440
Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, 1 August
http://www.seymourcentre.com

Winter, Arts Centre Melbourne
from July 27-18 August
artscentremelbourne.com.au

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, Malthouse
23 July-3 August
www.malthousetheatre.com.au

Here&Now13, Lawrence Wilson Gallery
27 July-28 September
www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au; www.dadaa.org.au/

TeleScope: Visions from the EU, online screenings
Melbourne International Film Festival
25 July-11 August
http://miff.com.au/program-categories/telescope

Fraught Outfit, Persona
Belvoir, 24 July-18 Aug
http://belvoir.com.au

Live and Deadly, Carriageworks
27 Jun-1 Aug
http://www.carriageworks.com.au/?page=Event&event=LIVE-AND-DEADLY

My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia
Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, 1 June-7 October
http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/my_country

Helium Season, Malthouse
8 June-5 Oct, see website for following productions
www.malthousetheatre.com.au/helium-2013/

Finucane & Smith’s The Glory Box…Paradise
45 Downstairs, Melbourne, 10 July -11 August
http://www.fortyfivedownstairs.com/events/

RealTime issue #115 June-July 2013 pg.