Monday, March 18, 2024

JUNGLE BOOK reimagined ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 24

 

 


Jungle Book reimagined. Adapted from the story by Rudyard Kipling

Director/Choreographer Akram Khan   

Creative Associate/Coach Mavin Khoo Writer Tariq Jordan Dramaturgical Advisor Sharon Clark Composer Jocelyn Pook Sound Designer Gareth Fry. Lighting Designer Michael Hulls 
Visual Stage Designer Miriam Buether Art Direction & Director of Animation Adam Smith (YeastCulture) Producer/Director of Video Design Nick Hillel (YeastCulture) 
Rotoscope Artists/Animators Naaman Azhari, Natasza Cetner & Edson R Bazzarin Rehearsal Directors Nicky Henshall, Andrew Pan & Angela Towler (Tour) 

DANCERS: Maya Balam MeyongTom Davis-DunnHector FerrerHarry Theadora Foster
Filippo FranzeseBianca MikahilMax RevellMatthew SandifordElpida SkourouHolly Vallis
Jan Mikaela Villanueva.Lani Yamanaka. The Festival Theatre. Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Festival 2024. March 15-16 2024

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins



Akram Khan’s work is always nothing short of extraordinary and his current production of Jungle Book reimagined is no exception. Brilliant, vibrant and expressive dancers superbly recreate the world of  Rudyard Kipling’s story of Mowgli (Jan Mikaela Villanueva). Khan’s vision imagines a world where climate change, natural disaster and world conflict have decimated the human race and animals roam the suburbs and institutions of deserted, crumbling cities. In Khan’s version of the popular book Mowgli is a climate change refugee, torn from her mother’s arms while attempting to survive the rising waters and perilous weather patterns. She finds herself in deserted cities occupied by animals and kidnapped by the Bandar-Log, lab monkeys who are desperate to become human. A struggle ensues to kidnap and control Mowgli and learn the secret of becoming human. With the help of Chili the Kite, Bagheera, the albino panther, Baloo the bear and Kaa the rock python, Mowgli is saved and destroys the outcast human who kills Chili with his gun.

Khan, who once played Mowgli as a child in an Indian dance production, recalls the inspiration of his childhood in a production that is magical in its staging and visionary in its telling. He urges humanity, like Mowgli, to end the savagery of the human race and restore the jungle to its former beauty and innocence He pleads for a harmony among species.  His dancers inhabit the characters of their animals, capturing the essence of their movement with remarkable skill and agility. This is the performance of a phenomenal company of dancers, totally absorbed by the nature of their animal, On the Festival Theatre stage, Khan’s imagination assumes epic proportions. Animation conjures a world of projected visions of animals passing through the cityscape. Herds of elephants and giraffes pass across the screen. Mice scurry along the stage’s edge Chili appears in the sky only to be shot down by the solitary human outcast. The feathers of the dead kite float to the earth and other species of birds appear to bear the lifeless body away. This is the magic of storybooks, a world of wonder and imagination.

The entire production with the dancers’ physical transformation into animals, the black and white animation and expressionistic depiction of buildings, underscored by Jocelyn Pook’s atmospheric composition and creatively illuminated by Michael Hull’s lighting design lends the production a cinematic quality.  Audiences are transported beyond their reality and into the world of a fable. Child and adult become one. Human and animal become one and Khan’s incandescent imagination teaches us that we are all inhabitants on this planet, but the human, more than any other species has like Mowgli the power to transform and heal.

Jungle Book reimagined is a theatrical triumph, an inspiring fusion of dance, music, theatre and technology.  It offers hope for the future and a lesson for the present. So as not to be overwhelmed by its imagery and its rich narrative I would suggest that audiences would benefit even more from Kahn and his company’s theatrical gift by reading the synopsis before attending the production. Bettter still, read the story and marvel at Kipling’s hope for humanity and then be thrilled and uplifted by Akram Khan’s Jungle Book reimagined  

 

Additional Credits 

ASSISTANT ANIMATORS: Nisha Alberti.Geo Barnett.Miguel Mealla Black. Michelle Cramer.Jack Hale.Zuzanna Odolczyk. Sofja Umarik  

VOICE ACTORS:Tian-Lan Chaudhry.Joy Elias-Rilwan. Pushkala Gopal.Dana Haqjoo. Nicky Henshall.Su-Man Hsu.Kathryn Hunter.Emmanuel Imani. Divya Kasturi.Jeffery Kissoon.Mavin Khoo.Yasmin Paige.Max Revell.Christopher Simpson. Pui Yung Shum. Holly Vallis.Jan Mikaela Villanueva.Luke Watson.3rd year students of Rambert School

Producing Director Farooq Chaudhry 
Executive Director Isabel Tamen 
Project Manager Mashitah Omar 
Technical Director Zeynep Kepekli 
Technical Manager Michael Cunningham 
Touring Production Manager & Prop Maker Marek Pomocki 
Lighting Engineer Stephane Dejours 
Sound Engineer Philip Wood 
Video Technician & Projectionist Matthew Armstrong 
Technical Stage Manager Samuel Collier 

Images Camilla Greenwell & Ambra Vernuccio

 

 

 

 

Birds and Nature - A Photographer’s Perspective

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

Birds and Nature - A Photographer’s Perspective| Binh Le Thanh

Kyeema Gallery at Capital Wines, Gladstone Street, Hall | 7 March - 7 April 2024

This is Binh Le Thanh’s first exhibition. It essentially falls into two parts – one is all about birds in nature. The other set of images are astrophotography – also known as astronomical imaging – which is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky.

The artist’s website reveals that he grew up surrounded by books about the famous photographers Art Wolfe and Frans Lanting, which he says brought him closer to nature. Nowadays he likes nothing better than spending hours “in the woods” watching birds and listening to the sound of the wind in the trees while taking in all the beauty of the wilderness.

When I asked how he got started in photography, Le Thanh told me his parents introduced him to it and encouraged him. Indeed, we learned that we had very similar experiences of picking up and using cameras from the days of our early childhoods.

Le Thanh, says that, for him, photography is about capturing the unique moments and feelings he has experienced with wildlife, the smell in the air, the intense mood within the silence and serenity of nature. In other words, it’s a way of preserving his memories enabling him to revisit those precious moments. His Instagram presence describes him as a nature shooter who happens to love the night sky.

This is a substantial exhibition of good quality framed prints. However, I feel there are too many in the show. Most are hung very close together in the small gallery space, whilst some are hung in various available smaller areas of walls in the wine tasting part of the venue. I suggest the artist would have benefitted from having an experienced curator plan the placement of his works – and to cull them down so that individual works might be better viewed and explored. I would also recommend having speakers at exhibition openings who have a good understanding of photography. That would enable visitors attending to hear some good commentary about the works and the purpose behind them.

Some other excellent photographers active in both fields - birds and astrophotography – have complimented this artist on these artworks. One has said the prints are breathtaking, the colours good and realistic, and the combination of subjects and backgrounds clever and harmonious. Getting the colours right is important to portray birds accurately. All good nature photographers will quickly draw attention to colours that are too saturated or simply not right. I am no expert, but the colours in this artist’s works appear to be spot on to me.

Golden Headed © Bien Le Thanh

Brown Thornbill © Bien Le Thanh

Red Capped Mum © Bien Le Thanh

The astro images are composed very well and reveal the artist’s technical skills. I was told by another gallery visitor who also is into astro photography that one of the locations photographed requires a walk (at night) over uneven ground from a carpark for a good hour. It also has to be the right time of year when specific features will be present in the night sky. Of course, the photographer must also carry all the right gear with which to get the desired image.

Le Thanh has chosen some excellent locations for his astro shots, including a number that feature country dwellings and churches.

Westerman © Bien Le Thanh

St Thomas © Binh Le Thanh

Other astro shots show beautiful landscapes.

Canola near Harden © Binh Le Thanh

So, whether your interests are specifically birds or nature or astro, or photographic art generally, this is an exhibition you can enjoy, whilst also checking out some good quality wines.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

 

MONACHOPSIS

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

MONACHOPSIS | Hilary Wardhaugh

CCAS Manuka | 14 – 24 March 2024

Speaking at the opening of her exhibition, local long-established career professional photographer, Hilary Wardhaugh, announced it was the first step in her new career as an artist. There was much laughter and positive response to that. Having long believed artists can emerge later in their life journeys – without undertaking formal tertiary art studies – I was delighted.

Wardhaugh has been capturing images for around 27 years, specialising in portrait, event, editorial and branding photography. But now, she proclaimed, a separate artist career was also underway.

In fact, this photographer’s website states that, more than a photographer, she considers herself an artist, activist/provocateur, volunteer and creator of community. It says her creative endeavours bring people together in the pursuit of a better world, her interest involves the human condition: irony and contradiction - and she also pursues topical and creative projects to highlight a theme or an issue, most recently climate change.

Wardhaugh has curated many projects involving women and photography; for example, Loud and Luminous (with Mel Anderson as co-Creator) and most recently a climate change project, The #everydayclimatecrisis Visual Petition, which achieved global recognition. Those projects have clearly demonstrated this photographer is an artist, activist, etc.

So this artist is very passionate about using photography as activism and demonstrating that through artistic, provocative and innovative means. And that is just what she is doing with this solo exhibition.

I had not previously heard the word monachopsis so turned to online sources seeking its meaning. I learned it is a new word, coined by writer John Koenig in his Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It describes the feeling of being maladapted to your surroundings, like a seal on a beach. Monachopsis is temporary for most people and diminishes when the unfamiliar becomes familiar and new routines and unknown faces become norms.

I now know I have personally experienced monachopsis as a result of being in a new and not familiar situation. I’m sure everyone else has had the same type of experience. But have we had quite the type of experience Wardhaugh has put before us here?

The journey that has culminated in this exhibition actually began in June 2016 when Wardhaugh saw the Queanbeyan River’s bank was littered with what she has described as “the detritus of the capitalist Anthropocene era”, and as a “grim testament to our collective negligence.” The sight stirred within her “a potent blend of horror and introspection.”

However, these exhibited artworks were created later. Wardhaugh visited Indonesia’s Bintan Island, and Greece’s Santorini. Again, the artist saw vast quantities of waste on beaches. I only saw pristine beaches on those two islands when I visited them many years ago; clearly our personal experiences depend on where we go and when.

So, this exhibition of artworks by this emerging artist is very much a response to experiences, revealing her hope that nature might reclaim those beaches.

Portrait of a discarded plastic sunscreen bottles cultivated by molluscs on Bintan © Hilary Wardhaugh

Feral car reclaimed by prickly pear on Santorini © Hilary Wardhaugh

Derelict building spoiling the natural landscape on Santorini © Hilary Wardhaugh

The artist has also created a site-specific artwork, placing digital copies of waste objects she found onto a long decal laid on the gallery floor. Her aim was to make exhibition visitors reflect on their responsibility to our planet. During the opening numerous visitors unintentionally walked on that artwork.

There is a very large print filling the entire end wall of the gallery space. And there is to be a closing ticketed event with composer @ruthleemartin who has created three new pieces of music in response to the exhibition.

Everything in this splendid exhibition encourages reflection about human impact on the environment. It transports us into that unsettling place to which monachopsis refers. Wardhaugh’s belief that art can provoke valuable conversations and lead to meaningful action underpins her purpose. And she has most successfully achieved what she set out to do.

This review (in an abbreviated form) was first published by Canberra City News on 17 March 2024 here. It is also available on the author's blog here.









The Great Divide

 

The Great Divide by David Williamson.  Currency Press, 2024.  Ensemble Theatre, Sydney, March 8 – April 27, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
March 16

Creatives

Playwright: Davide Williamson AO
Director: Mark Kilmurry; Asst Director: Julia Robertson
Set & Costume Designer: James Browne
Lighting Designer: Veronique Benett; Sound Designer: Daryl Wallis
Stage Manager: Erin Shaw; Asst Stage Manager: Alexis Worthing
Costume Supervisor: Renata Beslik

Cast

Penny Poulter – Emma Diaz; Rachel Poulter – Caitlin Burley
Alex Whittle – Georgie Parker; Grace Delahunty – Kate Raison
Brian / Joel – James Lugton; Alan Bridger – John Wood



Among David Williamson’s highly successful earlier plays, The Club (1977) was all about the same ‘great divide’ as now, in 2024.  But The Great Divide is the better play, and hits at the social crux of the issue with greater force.

The Club was all about men maintaining the traditions of Australian Rules Football against the threat of commercial profiteering.  Williamson’s Melbourne origin made this a necessary plea for an Australian cultural icon, saying “My original intention for The Club was that it was a satire of male competitive behaviour and ruthlessness when power and success were dangled before us. So originally it was a satire of bad male behaviour towards each other.”  

This was in an interview – We speak to the playwright about how one of his most revered works has aged over the last forty years – when, in 2019, the State Theatre Company of South Australia presented The Club with an all female cast.
https://medium.com/behind-the-curtain/david-williamson-on-the-club-34606386beaa

Williamson supported the move, saying “one of the things that The Club will underline is how much values have shifted or, at least, should have shifted.

In 2020 –  https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jan/11/david-williamson-on-retirement-politics-and-critics-for-years-i-couldnt-go-to-an-opening-night – as his Family Values and Crunchtime were being staged, he announced his intention to write no more plays.  Yet “In March 2024 the Ensemble stages his new play The Great Divide while in September 2024 the State Theatre Company of South Australia opens with another of his new plays The Puzzle.
https://davidwilliamsonplaywright.com/biography  ]


The Puzzle remains a puzzle as yet, but, because by interval at The Great Divide I found myself already being reminded of The Club, I am guessing that that  female casting stirred a deeper need for a more crucial issue – maintaining Australia’s unique environment: social and natural – as seen from the perspective of how women deal with competitive behaviour and ruthlessness when power and success are in the offing.

In Australia there is the Great Dividing Range, separating the east coast of the continent all the way from Victoria to Cape York – an image representing the issue of essential concern as commercial forces destroy our environment – literally as fossil fuel burning overheats the planet.  In the play, just the title is enough to remind us of the enormity of what Penny Poulter will need to do to save “an almost idyllic life in one of Australia’s best kept secrets, Wallis Heads”.

In the action we see the equal enormity of Alex Whittle (clearly referencing Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman with an estimated $36.7 billion fortune), who sees only ‘development’ of the environment as the way to stimulate the economy – meaning profiteering by and for the wealthy, including herself.

And then we see how this massive conflict – still often satirical in form and stirring us to laughter – is played out in the life of Rachel Poulter, Penny’s 16-year-old daughter, facing her sense of responsibility to herself, her family and her future.  And indeed, our future.

It must seem odd to John Wood, after playing in the original The Club, to play now in The Great Divide, where football is certainly not such a big issue as in 1977.  Especially as he so successfully plays the bemused male, mayor of Wallis Heads Council, trying so hard to bridge the gap between the proposed investment opportunity offered (are rather demanded) by Whittle, and the strength of support in the community for Poulter – not only for never allowing the natural beauty of their environment to be lost, but equally for working in real terms for reducing economic inequality.  Penny Poulter is a genuine battler, a mum left to raise her daughter by a recalcitrant ex and determined to change the world for the better.

James Lugton and John Wood
as journalist Brian and mayor Alan Bridger
in The Great Divide, Ensemble 2024

The role of the journalist, played very correctly by James Lugton both as the small-town newspaper man and national tv interviewer, is an element not presented in The Club – and at this point in our struggle to regulate social media platforms, such as Meta, is absolutely relevant to the future, even, of democracy.

Kate Raison as PA Grace Delahunty and Georgie Parker as Alex Whittle
The Great Divide, Ensemble 2024

 

 

 

Emma Diaz as Penny Poulter and Caitlin Burley as Rachel Poulter
The Great Divide, Ensemble 2024

Georgie Parker as Alex Whittle and Emma Diaz as Penny Poulter
The Great Divide, Ensemble 2024


 Photos by Brett Boardman

What makes The Great Divide better than The Club as a drama is Williamson’s perceptive writing of the women’s complex emotions and the intensity that the situation develops.  Each of the four actors Emma Diaz as the mother and social activist; Caitlin Burley as her equally determined daughter on the cusp of adulthood; Georgie Parker with her own story of financial and political power; and Kate Raison as Whittle’s PA with so much more to offer both her employer and her competitor – each create characters we feel about remarkably strongly.  

We begin expecting a social satire – after all, this is David Williamson, isn’t it?  We end knowing so much more clearly what our society does – doesn’t do – for these women.  

And we all need to know.  So don’t miss The Great Divide.



 

 

 

 

WAYFINDER ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 24

 


 

Wayfinder

            Concept, direction and choreography,  Amber Haines & Kyle Page, Lighting Design Niklas Pajanti, Composition Hiatus Kaiyote, Sound Art & Design Byron J. Scullin, Sound Sculpture Design, Construction & Implementation Robert Larsen & Nicholas Roux. Visual Design Hiromi Tango, Design Associate Chloe Greaves. Design Assistant Jeanette Hutchinson, Polyrhythm Consultant Naomi Jean. Performers/Choreographers Marlo Benjamin, Sabine Crompton-Ward, Tiana Lung, Damian Meredith, Callum Mooney, Darci O’Rourke, Tara Jade Samaya, Felix Sampson & Michael Smith. Dance North. The Space. Adelaide Festival Centre.  Adelaide Festival 24. March 15-17

 

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

 


Dancenorth Australia explodes with colour and movement in an opening sequence that bursts with the energy of youth. The young company of dancers erupt in a tribal celebration of clan pulsating with free abandon. It is the street dance of the young generation thrusting and pulsating with the defiance and individuality of their tribe. It is also the rite of passage of the new generation, seeking out the light, and discovering their way through life and stamping their identity through the vitality of their dance.

 Wayfinder is at times contagiously exuberant and at other times, pensive and questioning. Confidence and doubt create a thread through the work. At times choreographers Amber Haines and Kyle Page weave patterns of a close and reliant community and at other times during the journey in solo work and floor work expose the fear and uncertainty of the doubtful mind. The performance is backed by jazz/punk band Hiatus Kaiyote and their song Get Sun is an expression of the doubting heart. This is the world of angst and confusion. In a performance striving for answers, the dancers move through moments of self-expression, reliance on the group and finally a celebration of arrival at acceptance.

The inclusion of lamps which are held by the audience as well as the dancers at the moment of understanding and the long brightly coloured streamers immerse the stage in clolour and light. Japanese –Australian visual artist Hirori Tango’s imaginative design makes Wayfarer a feast for the eyes in the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre.  Wayfarer is a visual delight, whether bursting with exuberance in the opening ensemble sequence, or focusing on the solo dancer and their journey or returning to the group work and finally bouncing on the gym mat over a trampoline that converts into a wall that must be climbed to arrive at the end of the search. 

 Occasionally during the one hour performance the sequences are too long and repetitive. The visual surprise loses its impact after the blossoming image of arms and legs swaying in the space is too extended as is the rhythmic thumping of hands upon the mat. Overall, though, Haines and Page have created a visually and aurally effective expressive dance, ideally suited to the concerns and feelings of the young company.

Wayfarer offers the young a joyous journey of identification. It is infectious in its energy and vibrant in its imagery. It comes as no surprise that a largely young audience leapt to their feet to give a standing ovation to the dancing messengers of their tribe. 

Photos by Amber Haines. Interestingly enough these are not the fluorescent street kid  clothes worn by the dancers 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

ANTIGONE IN THE AMAZON ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 24

 

 



 Antigone in the Amazon

Concept and direction. Milo Rau.Text Milo Rau and Ensemble. Dramaturgy Giacomo Bisordi. Dramaturgical collaboration. Douglas Estevam and Martha Kiss Perrone. Assistant dramaturgy Kaatje de Geest and Carmen Hornbostel. Collaboration to concept, research and dramaturgy Eva Maria Bertschy.Musical composition Flip Rediger and Pablo Casella.Set Anton Lukas. Costumes Gabriela Cherubini, Jo de Visscher and Anton Lukas. Lightin Dennis Diels. Video Moritz von Dungern. Produced by NT Gent and Movimento dos Trabalhadores. (MTS)  Adelaide cast: Pablo Casella, Frederico Araujo, Janne Desmet and JoeriHappe. On Screen: Kay Sara, Gracinha Donato, Celia Maracaja, Choir of militants of Movimento do Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra (MST), and as Tiresias, Ailton Krenak. Dunstan Playhouse. Adelaide Festival  March 15-17 2024

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins 



Milo Rau’s production of Antigone in the Amazon is protest theatre at its heart. It lays bare the brutality and injustice of the dysfunctionalstate. It rails against the forces of evil. It shines a glaring light on the plight of the indigenous people of the Amazon forest and the landless workers forced from their homes and deprived of dignity and their rights. Antigone in the Amazon fuels the fire of fury against a state that brutalizes its citizens, destroys its nation’s beautiful landscape, drives a wedge between its wealthy and its poor and creates a society of outcasts. It is impossible not to feel outrage. Only the heartless would not be deeply moved by the treatment of citizens marginalized by a dictatorship or a fascistic elected government.

 Antigone in Amazon has been adapted by Rau and the Ensemble from Sophocles’ fifth century play about Antigone, who breaks the law of the state to bury her brother Polyneices against the command of the king Creon to leave the body for the beasts of the earth to feed upon. The parallels, almost 3000 years after Sophocles with the massacre of 19 protesting members of the Landless Worker’s Movement on April 17 1996 in the Brazilian state of Parta are uncanny and frightening. Antigone’s suicidal protest reverberates with chilling impact as Brazilian activists and Belgian theatre ensemble NT Gent restage the 1996 massacre. Survivors collaborate with the performers including activist and Trans actor Frederico Araujo who plays Polyniices and Antigone on stage  and one of the murdered protestors on video. The choir is conducted by Pablo Casella in the video of the horrific reenactment. He provides a guitar accompaniment to the performance on stage .

 Rau’s production combines Sophocles’ tragedy on stage with the video of the reenactment and a performance of Sophocles’ play for the indigenous people of the Amazon forest. As the government builds huge highways through the Amazon to transport gold and iron ore, the people who live in the forest are gradually being displaced from their land. It is the plight of the indigenous to be the victims of greed and prejudice. At times actors on stage interact with actors or members of the choir on the video, film and theatre. Casella underscores the action on stage with his guitar, conveying an immediate reality. The audience is thrust into the immediacy of the relationship between Sophocles’ drama and the contemporary tragedy played out on the video. The response to the callous shooting of the defenseless members of MST is gut-wrenching. Performances erupt with the raw emotions of people who understand the brutality in a country scarred by revolutions, military dictatorships and corrupt government. In a moment of utter anguish, Araujo flays about in the dirt upon the stage, screaming as the clouds of dust float through the air. It is a moment of absolute capitulation to the horror and despair that permeates the historical reality and the Greek tragedy.

The actors at times slip in and out of role. They introduce the story of Antigone to the audience at the start of the play. They describe the process of working with the choir and the people involved in the reenactment. They talk about their own involvement in working together. Their theatre is thoroughly committed, even didactic but driven by a need to inform and a will to reform.

Antigone in the Amazon does not strive to create catharsis for the audience. That is reserved for the people of Brazil who participate or witness this hybrid production. It is an inescapable depiction of the unjust treatment of the poor and disadvantaged. It is Brechtian in intent and evangelical in its message. As such, it is theatre at its most instructive, shocking and illuminating, anarchic and compassionate. It is the theatre of the oppressed that, in the words of Sophocles reminds us that we must not remain silent because “Much is monstrous yet nothing is more monstrous than man."

Photos by Kurt van der Elst

https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/digital-show-programs/antigone-in-the-amazon-show-program/#credits