in the loop – june 28
realtime news and advance word
Mish Grigor, Zoe Coombs Marr, Eden Falk, Who’s the Best?
photo Heidrun Lohr
Mish Grigor, Zoe Coombs Marr, Eden Falk, Who’s the Best?
who’s the best?—post is
You’ve only got until July 2 to be seduced and wowed by Post’s infectiously delirious Who’s the Best?, commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 2 Next Stages program. Once again Post raise daggy amateurism to a sublime artform—and with more professional verve than ever (see the review of Everything I Know About the Global Financial Crisis in One Hour in RT101). This experiment to determine which of the three collaborators and friends is the best performer employs a range of tests from psychological profiling to assessing who’s the ‘hottest.’ These are constantly complicated or sidetracked by hilariously mind bending battles of the Abbot and Costello “Who’s on first” variety over the semantics of category labels and terminology. They’re adroitly woven through the script, recurring as running gags and providing an immersive pulse to the work. The performers’ casual delivery (always played directly to the audience while they freely insult each other) yields intimacy and immediacy on a stage which wickedly threatens to subvert the show as curtains and lighting go about their own business regardless. Trio member and co-devisor Natalie Rose, who has recently had a child, is replaced for the premiere season by a wigged Eden Falk who slips easily into the Post mode while bringing his own wide-eyed comic innocence to Who’s the Best? alongside Mish Grigor and Zoe Coombs Marr. Post, Who’s the Best?, Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company, Next stage 2011, June 17-July 2, www.sydneytheatre.com.au
Elma Kris, Waangenga Blanco, Daniel Riley McKinley, Belong
photo Jason Capobianco
Elma Kris, Waangenga Blanco, Daniel Riley McKinley, Belong
new works in naidoc week
Next week is NAIDOC week and there are two exciting premieres to look forward to. In Sydney, the PACT Centre for Emerging Artists is presenting Bully Beef Stew, its first ever fully professional commission. Coming out of its Incubate initiative, a performance laboratory for emerging Indigenous artists, Bully Beef Stew features three young Aboriginal men—Sonny Dallas Law, Colin Kinchela and Bjorn Stewart—working with director Andrea James (former artistic director of Melbourne Workers Theatre) and choreographer Kirk Page. Billed as a “fearless theatrical exploration of Aboriginal manhood,” the piece draws on the personal experiences of the performers as well as their fathers and other men in their lives, past and present (press release).
Further north, Stephen and David Page will be premiering ID as part of Bangarra Dance Theatre’s double bill Belong. (Check out the Stephen Page archive in RealTimeDance.) This new work “draws upon Page’s personal experiences of observing contemporary Indigenous people tracing their bloodlines, reconnecting with their traditional heritage and living modern lives in a challenging urban society” (press release). The second new work of the evening, About, comes from emerging choreographer Elma Kris. The rise of Kris, Daniel Riley McKinley (RT98) and Vicki Van Hout (RT104) makes this an exciting time for contemporary Indigenous dance. The double bill will tour nationally. Bully Beef Stew, PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, June 29-July 9; www.pact.net.au; Bangarra Dance Theatre, Belong—ID and About, QPAC, July 1-9, then touring to Sydney, July 20-Aug 20, Perth, Aug 25-28, Canberra, Sept 2-3, Wollongong, Sept 8-10, Melbourne, Sept 15-24; www.qpac.com.au, www.bangarra.com.au
The Lost Thing
image courtesy of the artist
The Lost Thing
the lost thing found at the powerhouse
Still in Queensland, and just in time for the school holidays, the Brisbane Powerhouse presents Shaun Tan: The Art of the Story, a free exhibition showcasing the art of the Academy Award winner and children’s illustrator. On display will be limited edition prints of illustrations from his books The Rabbits, The Red Tree, The Lost Thing, Tales from Outer Suburbia and The Arrival (we reviewed Red Leap theatre’s adaptation of The Arrival in RT94). The exhibition also features the film version of The Lost Thing, which won this year’s Oscar for Best Short Animation as well as last year’s Yoram Gross Animation Award at the Sydney Film Festival (RT98). Shaun Tan: The Art of Story; June 28-July 10; www.brisbanepowerhouse.org
underbelly
In the wake of Imperial Panda (reviewed in our last e-dition) and Tiny Stadiums (reviewed in this one), comes another Sydney-based arts festival—Underbelly (see the interview with director Imogen Semmler in RT103). Previously staged at CarriageWorks (RT80) and Queen St Studios and surrounds in Chippendale, this year the festival heads to Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour. The festival proper is on for only one day, on Saturday July 16, but a 10-day preliminary program, The Lab, allows audiences to visit during the development period so they can watch the art unfold that’s been developing for several weeks. If you’re feeling particularly participatory, you can attend an Open Project session and contribute to the development of an anthropological experiment Case Study, Butterfries’ haunted-house inspired The All You Can Stand Buffet and Dan Koop’s The Stream/The Boat/The Shore/The Bridge, a human-scale board game in which the audience are the players. Underbelly Arts Festival, July 3-12, www.underbellyarts.com.au
Dave Brown (aka candlesnuffer), Liquid Architecture
photo courtesy of the artist
Dave Brown (aka candlesnuffer), Liquid Architecture
sound flows
For more than a decade, the Liquid Architecture: National Festival of Sound Art has showcased the best of the world of sound art (see our Archive Highlight).This year’s program includes artists Marc Behrens (Germany) who is bringing with him sounds from China and the Amazon rainforest, Pascal Battus (France) who shapes his instruments to match his body gestures and insists on offering the occasional “sound massage” and Lukas Simonis (Netherlands), who in collaboration with Melbourne’s Dave Brown, will display his mastery of guitar improvisation. They are joined by Australians Pia van Gelder, with her own electrical inventions, plus Jon Rose and his ‘Team Music’ live interactive netball game. The festival has already kicked off in Melbourne where it continues until July 2 with concerts running simultaneously in Perth (June 27-28), Bendigo (June 29) and Brisbane (July 1). Arriving in Sydney on July 2, Liquid Archtecture will feature two free concerts at the Eugene Goossens Hall in the ABC’s Ultimo Centre, Sydney (no booking required) and Battus’ Sound Massages on July 3. If you can’t be there in person, you can hear the performance broadcast that night on ABC Classic FM’s New Music Up Late. Liquid Architecture: National Festival of Sound Art, June 27-July 3; www.liquidarchitecture.org.au; www.abc.net.au/classic/newmusic
Show and Tell
scenes from the arab spring
Since last year’s Arab Film Festival, there have been revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, a civil war in Libya, uprisings in Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, major protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco and Oman and minor protests in Kuwait, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. In other words, it’s a time of incredible change. Now in its 10th year (see our reviews from 2007 and 2010), this year’s Arab Film Festival presents 22 “front-line stories” from around the region, many of which have been presented at recent festivals in Cannes, Dubai, Berlin and Sundance. Highlights include Sarkhat Namla (The Cry of an Ant), the first feature film to address the Egyptian Revolution this year; Stray Bullet, which features Lebanese actress Nadine Labaki in her first role since the internationally acclaimed Caramel; and Into the Belly of the Whale, where we follow a man trapped in the supply tunnels under the border zone between Israel and Egypt. Local films include Mary, a story of neighbourly espionage in Western Sydney, and Show and Tell which examines the link between object and memory of recently arrived refugees in Sydney. There’s also a forum on July 1 titled Revolution, Romance, Realities, which will address “how new media has facilitated a critical mass movement, amplifying everyday voices, transmitting images globally” (press release). Speakers include Dr Paula Abood, Randa Abdel Fattah, Farid Farid and Sameh Abdel Aziz. The festival will then tour to state capitals. 2011 Arab Film Festival, Sydney June 30-July 3, Melbourne July 8-10, Canberra July 14-17, Adelaide July 23-24, Brisbane July 30-31; www.arabfilmfestival.com.au
life after death in venice
In our most recent print edition, we interviewed Anna Teresa Scheer about the work of Christoph Schlingensief (RT103). Schlingensief died of cancer in August 2010 at the age of 49, but a few months prior curator Susanne Gaensheimer had approached him to design the German Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. Instead of abandoning the project completely, or attempting to realise it exactly as the artist had imagined, Gaensheimer chose a middle path, presenting Schlingensief’s plans in book form ahead of the event and then using the event itself to show a selection of his works, without attempting a retrospective. She was rewarded for her efforts on June 4, when the German Pavilion was presented with the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. You can see the announcement on the Biennale’s YouTube channel, read an interview with Gaesheimer in Deutsche Welle and an interview with Schlingensief’s widow Aino Laberenz in Der Spigel. For footage of the pavilion itself, see Vernissage, the official website Deutscher Pavilion and Schlingensief’s own personal website.
RealTime issue #103 June-July 2011 pg. web
