Image by Daniel Boud
It’s 2019 and death, the one inevitability, is still a taboo subject. Fascinated by the lack of transparency in the death and funeral industry, artist Lara Thoms has teamed up with ex-funeral director Scott Turnbull to lift the lid and answer some common questions about dying in The Director.
Image by Clare Hawley
Elle is living a dream: her estranged Italian aunt has passed away and left her rural olive farm in its entirety to her. But after Elle has flown over from Sydney, it becomes clear that her aunt has left her a lot more than just the farm. In an unravelling story of family secrets, environmentalism, extortion, and murder, Daniela Giorgi’s Italian adventure covers it all in a homey and haunted kitchen.
Image by Daniel Boud
Ghenoa Gela is a multi-medium performer using dance, theatre, and a bit of stand-up comedy to tell the story of herself in My Urrwai. “Urrwai” loosely translates into English as a personal style or essence so Gela’s solo production represents many aspects of her identity as Torres Strait Islander woman, a dancer and performer, and someone finding her way outside the Western heterosexual binary.
Image by Brett Boardman
Neecy has organised to have three generations of her family to meet at their traditional family camping spot for a secret occasion. Choosing to ignore their personal crises for the weekend, the women wear away the shine of happy quality time very quickly. The intrusion of a controversial photographer, employed to document the event by Neecy, doesn’t help to stabilise rocky communication.
Image by Stephen Reinhardt
For this year’s Sydney Comedy Festival, Theatresports put a twist on the conventional competition structure and pitted performers from three generations against each other to find the ultimate improv decade. Bringing together stars new and old from the Sydney improv scene, Theatresports All-Stars was a celebration of the community and the performers keeping the form going.
For their first concert of 2019, Sydney’s Bel a cappella performed a wide ranging program of pieces from familiar composers and some unusual outliers. Performing in the quaint Victorian St Augustine’s Catholic Church, the choir were additionally joined by AirCon, a whistling group, to add another flair to typical choral singing.
It’s the late 19th century and Sherlock Holmes is on another case with his trusty friend and confident Dr John Watson. Through a series of interrogations, tips, and disguises, Sherlock thinks he has pieced together a string of murders and cracked the case. It’s just like any other murder mystery except this one is entirely improvised!
Image by Clare Hawley
Joseph K has been arrested by an unknown entity for an unknown crime and, while it’s unclear what the consequences of his arrest may be, his identity is slowly being erased from all systems and databases. With the help of his sister and some unusual characters, Joseph hopes to fight the charges and get his life back on track. In Tom Basden’s adaptation of the Franz Kafka novel the Trial, the validity and efficacy of the modern world’s bureaucracy and impenetrable policies are satirised to the extreme.
Image by James Hartley
Global events over the last three years have dragged Animal Farm, the anti-Stalinist novel by George Orwell, back into the spotlight. This adaptation for the stage by Geordie Brookman animates the slow but steady journey from revolution to dictatorship in an English farmyard with a single actor representing all characters.
In a charming genre mash-up double bill at the Independent, the String Contingent performed their last concert for the promotional tour of their new album with opening duo Blue and Sentimental. Written during a tour of northern Australia, From Here or Somewhere Else is an album celebrating the unique physical and social landscape of Australia.
Night Writes 