There is a particular type of public fascination with kidnapping cases, perhaps because of great sympathy for the families and children who suffer the cruel crime or out of morbid relief that your family was lucky. One especially famous case that garnered a lot of attention was that of Jaycee Lee Dugard who was found in 2009 after being held captive for 18 years or the fictional account of Jack and his mother in Room by Emma Donoghue, based on the real experiences of Elizabeth Fritzl, found in 2008 after being held by her father for 24 years. At the heart of these media frenzies or the fictionalised stories seems to be a need to understand; how could this happen? Who would do something so awful?
Continue reading →The Marvellous Snake Boy & MUSH | the Chippo Hotel
It’s been a weird few years perhaps exacerbated by the pure oddity of humans. Celebrities panicking to “Imagine”, ordinary people throwing in the society towel to make their own bread and grow their own vegetables, or the ritualised group screams of locked down communities; all evidence that the last few years have taken their toll. As such, comedians and clowns Alexander Richmond and Jeromaia Detto resurrect their studies of the human condition to ask, have we actually always been this way?
Continue reading →Angels, Dreams & Fantasies | Melbourne Youth Orchestras
There is so much potential in youth with life stretching out in front of you, ready for the taking. It’s fitting then that this program for the Melbourne Youth Orchestras would consider the highs and lows of life with inspiration from classic texts that considered life’s great questions. Aspects of humanity from passion to generosity to bravery come together in Angels, Dreams & Fantasies.
Continue reading →NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition 2022 | Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra
From its beginnings as a competition founded by Barbara Cran and Barbara Robinson to allow secondary student musicians an opportunity to perform with an orchestra, the NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition is now celebrating its 50th year of young talent and a love of music.
Continue reading →M.ROCK | Australian Theatre for Young People
Ageing is a rocky road, whether you’re a teen entering adulthood with a world opening up that you hardly understand, or you’re on the other end of the spectrum and you feel the world closing in around you with each encroaching year. Grandmother and granddaughter Mudge both want to know what life has in store for them but they didn’t realise they’d have to go to Berlin to find out.
Continue reading →Macbeth | Come You Spirits Theatre Troupe
The works of William Shakespeare are well-established cultural touchstones beyond the realm of the audience and performer dynamic but the ensemble of the Come You Spirits Theatre Troupe aim to inject even older traditions into these texts to amplify their resonances on a spiritual, energetic level. In this winter solstice performance of Macbeth, the story is placed in a spooky natural context in an embrace of its basic elements.
Continue reading →Tumbling Dice | At Productions
Life can come at you fast, throwing up all sorts of obstacles that you weren’t expecting or don’t know how to overcome. For the teachers and students at this high school, they couldn’t have predicted how much of their lives would change over the next four years.
Continue reading →Enemies of Grooviness Eat Shit | Performing Lines
Renowned sex clown Betty Grumble returns to the stage to explore big feelings of grief, love, and fear and the great tools of navigation: art, pleasure, and justice. Grooviness is a state of being in touch and in rhythm so Betty invites all those enemies of grooviness, perpetrators of gendered violence, violence against the Earth, and violence against the self, to dive into her eco-feminist compost heap to eat shit.
Continue reading →Performer Jon Lam on Moon Rabbit Rising | Little Eggs Collective
Night Writes was joined by performer Jon Lam to discuss the upcoming production Moon Rabbit Rising by Little Eggs Collective.
Continue reading →The Sweet Science of Bruising | Theatre Travels & One Good Act
There’s something in the Sydney theatre air that means 2022 has been the year of productions focused on women’s emancipation and their right to choose their life path. Hush, A Letter for Molly, and Ghosting the Party considered mothering; Lady Windermere’s Fan, Lady Precious Stream, and A Doll’s House saw women navigating marriage contracts; and Chef, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, and now the Sweet Science of Bruising turn different lens on violence in women’s lives to examine power, freedom, and choice.
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