I war, The Danger Ensemble photo courtesy Brisbane Festival |
For UTR 2012 producer Britt Guy it’s about “the most exciting independent artists and collectives working across Australia and the world” who challenge conventions and offer “fresh creative landscapes” or “raw and intimate…rough and ready” works in public spaces “that will change the way you think about Brisbane.” For those wishing to forestall the inevitability of the Campbell Newman vision of their city, UTR might be just what the doctor ordered.
The packed program of largely Australian works suggests that the hybrid performance genre is mutating nicely to include such multi-headed beasts as lighting design + live art party (Dark Matters), stand-up + left-field performance in the buff (Envoye://Fragmente) and what must be a first—a soprano (Heather Keens) communing with a nasendoscopic projection of her vocal folds to “explore the sounds and memories that return to a singer during a performance” (Conversations with my Voice).
Capital, Tina Dobaj Eder and Gregor Kamnikar photo Suncan Stone |
Fifteen, Liesel Zinc photo courtesy Brisbane Festival |
Underground photo Gerwyn Davies, courtesy Brisbane Festival |
Best We Forget, is this yours photo courtesy Brisbane Festival |
And what sort of a festival would it be without contemplation of the afterlife? In After All This you’re in the expert hands of the highly decorated Elbow Room (Best Ensemble, Best Director 2012 Victorian Green Room Awards; Best Performance 2011 Melbourne Fringe). Or maybe live art with video installation will take you out of yourself. Among the ephemeral offerings in UTR’s Inter Art Works program “seeping into the public spaces of Brisbane” is the experiential heaven::himmel in which one performer (Henriette Kassay-Schuster) in Berlin and the other (Hermione Merry) in Brisbane together create a liminal zone for you “to explore the joy and tragedy of (mis)communication through the use of space, multiple projection, live performance and sound.”
Accept the invitation to Katie Sfetkidis’ Dark Matter (Brave New Works program) and you’ll get music, disco balls, food and party games followed by a sobering wind-down with a “private sound and light experience in a darkened room.” Or you might feel safer in the hands of Stuart Bowden creator of the multi-award winning Loungeroom Confabulators who introduces his latest incarnation in The Beast a duet with a flickering silhouette called Winslow.
Potential peril is inherent in witnessing the early stages of any new work in development. Perhaps moreso when you enter the realm of the Danger Ensemble. But if you like your theatre edgy you won’t want to miss I WAR in which the ensemble throws OH&S cautions once more to the wind to “delve heart first into a visceral world of dance, theatre, music and media to investigate the human identity at war.” Late great RT writer Douglas Leonard described the Ensemble thus: “As a company, they seem to be exploring that friable edge which divides the tolerable from the intolerable, but they’re equally committed to physical precision, lucidity and direct expression that comes from training in the disciplines of Butoh and Suzuki method.” (RT105, Hamlet Apocalypse)
Reparation of the Heart, Jacopus Cupone photo courtesy Brisbane Festival |
Indulge your paranoid projections in Communication Facilitation Devices for Everyday Conversation or Other Emotional Outbursts in which we’re reminded, “Everything is sent, tracked, recorded and updated, every piece of information accounted for." The performance based video works of Astrid Woods-Joyce are framed as ‘thought experiments’ that aim to test or transcend the normal bounds of communication space by speculating on new and different ways to connect with individuals, spaces and place. City surveillance is also invoked in ThreeFold, a series of public video installations and interventions from Pirrin Francis, Melissa Ryke and Hayley Brandon, projected in various locations across the city.
Still Night, Berlin, Nevada photo courtesy Brisbane Festival |
Under the Radar, Brisbane Festival Metro Arts and selected festival venues, September 8-29, www.brisbanefestival.com.au
RealTime issue #110 Aug-Sept 2012 pg. web
© Virginia Baxter; for permission to reproduce apply to [email protected]