2013 MELBOURNE FESTIVAL

Melbourne Festival Creative Director Josephine Ridge’s first Festival program invites Melburnians and visitors to experience 105 events and activities, including contemporary and classical music, dance, theatre, visual arts, film, forums, conversations and encounters, with over a third of the events free of charge.

With 19 world premieres and 13 Australian premieres, the Festival runs for 17 days from 11 October 2013.

Occupying over 45 venues, including some of the city’s most iconic buildings and sites (The Palais, Capitol Theatre, the Athenaeum, Hamer Hall at the Arts Centre, NGV, Her Majesty’s, Fed Square), the Festival also embraces new venues and unexpected sites (RMIT Design Hub, Yarra Trams, Peppercorn Gardens, Chinese Museum).

Josephine Ridge said: "Melbourne Festival at its heart is a celebration of this city. With this Festival program, we wanted to really explore the city and see it through different eyes; to appreciate the depth of its creative history and how this is woven into the fabric of the urban landscape.
“If the Festival can be seen as a room with many doors, then our hope is that audiences enter through one, but once inside they discover a wealth of extraordinary experiences.”

Commencing on Friday 11 October with Tanderrum, a Welcome to Country directed by Rachel Maza from Ilbijerri Theatre, plus a free concertfeaturing Archie Roach, and continuing for 17 days, program highlights include Gurrumul accompanied by an orchestra at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl; adedicated Kids Weekend for children and families using spaces in and around Fed Square, featuring Melbourne’s Polyglot Theatre with Trailblazer and The Listies with Earworms; and a weekend of Brahms vs Wagner and Haydn For Everyone, featuring the MSO, Flinders Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, Sir Nicholas Kenyon, Richard Tognetti, and Asher Fisch.

Highlights of the theatre program include Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s epic masterpiece Life and Times: Episode 1-4 (seen in separate parts or as a 10 hour marathon complete with ice-cream); The Shadow King, an Indigenous adaptation of King Lear - a co-commission with Malthouse Theatre; and Belarus Free Theatre, making its Melbourne debut with Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker.

Britain's Kneehigh Theatre's adaptation of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter will perform nightly at the Athenaeum Theatre. The Festival hosts the Australian premiere of Ontroerend Goerd’s Teenage Riot andAll That Is Wrong – parts two and three of the trilogy that began with Once And For All We’re Going to Tell You What we think so Shut Up and Listen.

The Festival is working with local companies to co-present with Theatre Works the world premieres of The Rabble’s Room of Regret (a reimagining of Dorian Gray) and Daniel Schlusser Ensemble’s M+M (inspired by The Master and Margarita). The Festival will also host the world premiere of Eddie Perfect’s The Beast with MTC.

In contemporary dance, two events feature one of the world’s most admired ballet dancers, Sylvie Guillem. 6000 miles away is a triple bill described as ‘a love letter to Sylvie’ by choreographers William Forsythe, Mats Ek and Jirí Kylián, and the Melbourne exclusive event PUSH, stars Sylvie and choreographer/dancer Russell Maliphant.

In the film program, the Festival presents a John Landis Retrospective, with Landis himself in attendance to introduce many of the screenings. Spanning such cinematic touchstones as The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London and Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, Landis’s outlandishly entertaining films defined the feel of an era.

Director Michael Kantor’s film debut, The Boy Castaways also features in the program, starring Tim Rogers, Paul Capsis and Megan Washington – coupled with a live concert (Songs of Wreck and Ruin) performed by the film’s cast.

Israeli-UK choreographer, Hofesh Schechter holds the world premiere of his new work, Sun at the Festival, and award-winning local choreographer, Stephanie Lake has another dance world premiere with A Small Prometheus at Arts House.

Along with the Brahms versus Wagner and Haydn for Everyone curated events, the classical music program includes piano prodigies, Katia and Marielle Labeque, plus the world premiere of Bruchlandung, a post-apocalyptic chamber opera project by wild child sonic artist/composer James Hullick.

The Crowd is a concert by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, led by Artistic Director, Richard Tognetti, and featuring footage by cinematographer Jon Frank. Ben Walsh presents an musical and cinematic celebration of a silent-era goddess - the Australian-born star of Indian cinema known as Fearless Nadia.

In the contemporary music program Archie Roach performs Into the Bloodstream; New Jersey’s three piece, Yo La Tengo perform an exclusive Australian show in Hamer Hall; blind Malian husband-and-wife duo Amadou & Mariam perform Eclipse at Melbourne Recital Centre, staged entirely in the dark; The Cinematic Orchestra brings their grandiose jazz-electronica hybrid to Hamer Hall.

Ireland’s Clannad return to Australian shores;, Active Child, the cerebral pop project of Los Angeles native Pat Grossi performs at Melbourne Recital Centre; Albuquerque duo Brett and Rennie Sparks -  The Handsome Family - appear at the Hi-Fi with Ireland’s soulful crooner Foy Vance.

The Foxtel Festival Hub returns to the banks of the Yarra as a new, custom-designed bar, club and hub – a performance space and festive destination. The Hub music program features The Polyphonic Spree, part euphoric church choir, part Day-Glo rock musical supergroup, over three nights; Steve Mason (lead singer of The Beta Band) makes his Australian debut; Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds also tours Australia for the first time; two acclaimed musicians who share an abiding love of the melancholy sounds of neo-country take to the stage for An Evening with Caitlin Rose and Henry Wagons. Cody ChesnuTT returns to Australia for the first time since 2006, backed by a ten-piece band; and a celebration of three golden eras of local ska featuring ska pioneers The Caribs, 80s mainstays Strange Tenants and The Ska Vendors.

Other artists featured are 2011 Triple J Unearthed winners Husky, Aussie indie electro DJ duo, Flight Facilities, Brooklyn-based sister duo Prince Rama,Melbourne-based soulsters Hiatus Kaiyote, Bristol electronic two-piece Fuck Buttons,Chilean reggae roots veteran Quique Neira, and Dexter, of The Avalanches and Grrilla Step Collective.

2013 Melbourne Festival runs from 11 – 27 October, with tickets going on sale on Friday 16 August.

melbournefestival.com.au

Images (from top): Life and Times; Brief Encounter; Rite of Spring and All That is Wrong.