ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2025 THE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

 

Adelaide Festival  Australia’s International Festival. 

Artistic Director Brett Sheehy AO. Adelaide Festival Centre and various locations. February 28 – March 16 2025. Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au. Phone: 1300 393 404 or Ticketek131246

Previewed by Peter Wilkins

 

Brett Sheehy 
Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival 2025

In August of this year Adelaide Festival director Ruth McKenzie CBE suddenly resigned her position to take up an exciting opportunity in the Department of Premier and Cabinet as Program Director, Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Policy. Adelaide Festival Corporation Chair, Tracy Whiting AM immediately rang former festival director Brett Sheehy AO to ask him to be the interim director until the Board could appoint a new director to undertake the 2026-2028 Adelaide Festivals. Semi-retired Sheehy accepted the role and immediately set about programming the remaining events. When I spoke with him about the 2025 festival to be held in Adelaide from February 28 – March 16, Sheehy told me that in the very short time that he had to programme a complete festival he had filled about two thirds or three fifths of the programme. Former co-directors Neil Armfield AO and Rachel Healey had previously locked in Kaija Saariaho’s contemporary opera Innocence and McKenzie had included Table Top Shakespeare and various other events. However, the bulk of the programming was left to Sheehy to organize.

The boundless energy and enthusiasm that has characterized his career as Artistic Director of the Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne international Festivals and the Melbourne Theatre Comany is as effusive as when I first interviewed Sheehy in 2006 when he assumed the position of Artistic Director of Australia’s premier and foremost arts festival. Even though he will relinquish his role at the end of March and return to his semi-retired lifestyle at his home in Leura in the Blue Mountains, he will have surely left an indelible mark of excellence on Adelaide’s 40th international arts festival. A browse through the festival’s website at www.adelaidefestival.com.au will reveal a staggering  65 events, 11 world premieres, 9 Australian premieres and 15 exclusives.

Kaija Saariaho's Innocence. Photo Jean-Louis Fernandez

With so much to choose from and across so many genres including opera, theatre and music theatre, dance and dance theatre, exhibitions, Writers’ Week, Music and youth and education programmes and world music festival WOMAdelaide, I decide to focus on the theatre and music theatre offerings and leave readers to immerse themselves in the online programme. For interstate and overseas visitors who may only have a limited time to spend at this extraordinary event there is a dilemma- which week offers the best choices for the interstate visitor?

“Unequivocally I do think that you should be there at the opening. We have Innocence and we have Rocio Molina’s  Caeda del Cielo (Fallen From Heaven) and we have Krapp’s Last Tape. They are all opening in that first section.” Sheehy says. Schooled under the mentorship of legendary arts festival director Leo Schofield, Sheehy became an avid proponent of contemporary opera. ” I think Innocence will be Australia’s opera event of the year. It’s a big claim but this towering work has been considered a masterpiece by opera lovers and critics alike around the world.” Sheehy is also a great fan of Australian ex pat director Simon Stone whose production of Thyestes wowed Adelaide audiences some festivals ago. As soon as Stone’s production of Innocence completes its season at the festival it moves to the Met in New York. “It’s international creds are impeccable” Sheehy says,” and people are coming from as far afield as Hong Kong, Wellingston, KL and Singapore to see it in Australia. ”The subject matter is so dark, a school shooting at an international school in Finland. However all of the great operas are based on dark themes. In the 21^st century communities need to come together and deal with grief and loss. ”Under Stone’s direction Innocence is as much theatre as it is contemporary opera and many of the cast are first and foremost actors as well as singers.. ”If there is such a thing as a “Don’t miss” then Innocence would be that for me”

Stephen Rea in Krapp's Last Tape.
Photo Pato Cassinoni

Sheehy has been a Stephen Rea fan since he saw the Oscar winner’s performance in The Crying Game. He is therefore especially excited to invite Rea to Adelaide to perform the eponymous role in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape. “When I saw him, I thought what an extraordinary actor.” Krapp’s last Tape is considered to be one of Beckett’s four masterpieces along with Happy Days, End Game and of course Waiting For Godot.” Audiences will be in for a real treat when the great Irish actor performs in the great Irish playwright’s iconic play. Krapp is 69 years old. Each year on his birthday he records his experiences. This particular year he plays back a tape from his younger days. He listens to his younger self and needs to marry his youthful dreams and aspirations with his older self. Rea, a devoted disciple of Beckett has also been taping himself and layers the performance with recordings of Beckett’s text lending the 55 minute performance a deeply personal touch. ”Rea is one of the great Irish actors,” Sheehy says, ”and for him to be in this great Irish play with himself as a younger man is spine-tinglingly extraordinary stuff”.

Rocio Molina in Caeda del Cielo. (Fallen From Heaven)

For some people the sound of castanets and the clicking heels of the Flamenco dancer may send them insane, but the woman who made Mikhail Baryshnikov fall to his knees in homage will transfix audiences during the first week of the festival with her performance of Caeda del Cielo (Fallen From Heaven) Rocio Molina combines the classical art of Flamenco with contemporary dance from around the world. The show is essentially an examination of womanhood. As the production unfolds she plays various female archetypes. There is the mother, the lover, the moon goddess and the bondage dominatrix. ”This Adelaide exclusive just builds and builds. It’s a great piece about the strength of women. ”The Independent called Molina “Flamenco’s wildest radical, punk and glorious, a magnificent dancer whose range takes in the fiery intensity of traditional styles, surreal fantasy and unpredictable humour.”

Rhoda Roberts in My Cousin Frank. Photo: Kate Holmes

Australian theatre and arts director Rhoda Roberts AO tells the story of My Cousin Frank. It is an extraordinary account of the life of Francis Roberts, Australia’s first indigenous Olympian. “Honest Frank” took part in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in the welterweight division. He was also the youngest competitor in the boxing team. And yet in 1964, Roberts was prohibited from travelling on an Australian passport because aborigines were not regarded as Australian citizens. He therefore had to be allowed to travel with the team and sign a permission slip. “Here is an indigenous Australian, representing his country on the Olympic stage and receiving an invitation to dine with Emperor Hirohito and yet he was not able to go to Tokyo on an Australian Passport. Unbeliveable!” Sheehy exclaims. Performed in English and Bundjalung, My Cousin Frank is “a powerful narrative of resilience, identity and the pursuit of excellence in the face of adversity.”

ILBIJERRI Theatre Company in Big Name No Blanket Photo James Henry

Time has flown and Sheehy and I have barely scraped the surface of the remarkable performances on offer at the 2025 Adelaide Festival. Music Theatre attractions include John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s genre-defying rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Ilbijerri Theatre Company’s  indigenous rock musical. Big Name No Blanket. Table Top Shakespeare presents Shakespeare’s plays over eight days on a table using kitchen items to play out the characters and the action. Also in the first week will be stand up comedian Samuel Barnett in Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen written by Marcelo de Santos. There is also Lucy Guerin’s acclaimed dance company presenting One Single Action in an Ocean of Everything. The world renowned Pina Bausch Company from Wuppertal arrive in Adelaide to perform Club Amour and Café Mueller during the final week in a double bill with Terrain Boris Charmatz.

Club Amour - Pina Bausch Wuppertal Tanzteater

The more one probes the programme, the more challenging the choices. Whatever choices one makes and whatever art form you wish to focus on you will be overwhelmed by the excellence of the work that Sheehy has brought to celebrate the city’s 40^th festival.“There is a theme of love that permeates this festival “Sheehy tells me,” not by design but as part of the Zeitgeist. A lot of these works are about love, love in its most joyful form but also love that we have lost through grief.” Sheehy cites Irish singer Camille O’Sullivan’s Loveletter and Trent Dalton’s Love Stories in which Dalton also includes personal stories of his married life in this exuberant celebration of love from the Queensland Theatre Company and under the direction of Artistic Director Sam Strong. Hewa Rwanda- Letter to the Absent is a music theatre performance described as a loveletter to those who are no longer here. Set against the horror of war in Rwanda it is also a hymn to the living.

Photo Evangelos Rodoulis

“In our day and age people often recoil from our offerings.” Sheehy says. It is often because of the perception that what we are trying to deliver is medicine rather than food. My joy comes from art that is food, not medicine.” Sheehy shies away from art that is perceived as something that audiences need or want.

Trent Dalton's Love Stories Photo: Craig Wilkinson

 “What I can promise anyone who comes to Adelaide in March next year is that they will have an experience  which is food for the soul not medicine for the sick.”  I remind Sheehy that he once told me that Festival stands for feast and celebration. He still believes that. “ Even with the darkest works people step out of the theatre with their hearts lifted and their lives enriched. For Sheehy art is food for the spirit, “It’s nourishing, fulfilling, enjoyable, extraordinary – all of those things.“ 

Adelaide Festival The International Festival

February 28 – March 16 2025

www.adelaidefestival.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

The Hair and the Shortis

 

The Hair and the Shortis by Shortis & Simpson at Smith’s Alternative, Canberra City, Saturday December 7, 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone

Political satire, written, composed and performed by John Shortis and Moya Simpson.

    Shortis & Curlies John Shortis, Moya Simpson, Andrew Bissett at The School of Arts Cafe, 108 Monaro Street, Queanbeyan.  Season: Thursdays to Saturdays till June 29, 1996.

If you are a Liberal politician confident that cutting government spending is the only way to go; or a Labor politician feeling sorry for yourself after 100 days of the new regime; or a veterinary surgeon operating out of Woden Valley; or someone who thinks that a national gun register is not a good idea; or Princess Diana; or Jeff Kennett; or even a frozen embryo who hopes to inherit your dead father's estate: then you shouldn't see this show because you probably won't laugh.

This is how I introduced Shortis & Simpson when they began performing in 1996.  Nowadays, with Shortis and only one Curly, how much has changed since the first 100 days of John Howard’s eleven years, 1996 – 2007, of Conservative government (weirdly called ‘Liberal’ in this country) and the possible prospect of an even more right-wing conservative Peter Dutton government from early in 2025.

In the meantime the political issues may have changed their names and parties like the Prime Ministers: Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd  (weirdly called ‘Labor’ instead of Labour) 2007-2013; Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison (Liberal National Coalition) 2013-2022; Anthony Albanese (Labor) 2022-2025, so far.  

Shortis & Simpson have remained the same in principle and have developed in practice over these three decades, receiving a Canberra Critics’ Circle award this year, the citation reading “for their original music series, Under the Influence, in which the duo wove their own stories and music together with those of guest artists Keith Potger, Karen Middleton, DJ Gosper, Nigel McRae and Beth Tully, culminating in seasons with Mikelangelo and Fred Smith…. [an] initiative [which] proved a creative way of highlighting leading Canberra region popular musicians.”

And their full house at Smith’s Alternative tonight still laughed, and sang and clapped along, and even groaned appropriately, as they did at the Queanbeyan School of Arts Café – this time at Lydia Thorpe’s intended insult but unintended comic mispronunciation of King Charles’ heirs as ‘hairs’ rather than ‘airs’, stirring up John Shortis’ fascination with word play via The Hare and the Tortoise to this show’s title, The Hair and the Shortis.  Moya made it very clear who had the hair and who was the shortis.

The people who probably wouldn’t have laughed include the CEOs of Woolworths and Coles supermarkets; the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers; Elon Musk; Tronald Dump; all the Moonlight Senatas to Beethoven’s tune, up all night rushing bills through while Albo’s In The Air with John Paul Young, after enjoying his time in the Chantas Quairman’s Lounge; the new local Australian Capital Territory Liberal leader, Country&Western singer, Leanne Castley; the richest woman in Australia, Gina Rinehart, after her smooching with Nigel Farage at Trump’s dinner party at Mar-a-Lago; Senator Lydia Thorpe – they want to get rydia; and many others.

You wouldn’t want to be a Middle American either; or a Peter Dutton type who can pronounce ‘nuclear’ in every way except the right way – and seriously imagine covering Australia with nuclear power plants.

Then there are different, intriguing songs and stories.  The Childless Dog Lady, that is Moya Simpson herself, doesn’t seek sympathy, but recognition of her personal preference for dogs rather than children, rather than being insulted as a Childless Cat Lady as Kamala Harris has been.  While there was the story of the Australian native stingless bees kept at Parliament House in Canberra, but which don’t like our frosts and are taken to Sydney each winter to breed, and how they become a model for our politicians to become stingless, instead of stinging each other and us like European bees.

I can’t report here on all 26 items in this engaging show before the encore, but that was an enlightening history in itself of protest movements and their songs which made a powerful finale.

The important thing to say about Shortis&Simpson is that they are an essential part of our community.  We feel every year how we belong to them and they belong to us.  And they have promised me that they will be there with us again next year.

 

 

 

 

Jack Maggs

 

Jack Maggs by Samuel Adamson, based on the novel of the same name by Peter Carey, after Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
State Theatre Company South Australia at Canberra Theatre Centre, Playhouse.  December 5-7 2024.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
December 5


Writer: Samuel Adamson    Director: Geordie Brookman

Cast
Jack Maggs: Mark Saturno;             Tobias Oates: James Smith
Mercy Larkin: Ahunim Abebe;         Hawthorne/Mary/Phipps: Rachel Burke
Constable/George/Partridge: Dale March;     Miss Mott/Lizzie: Jelena Nicdao
Percy Buckle/Dr Grieves: Nathan O'keefe
Ma Britten/Mrs Halfstairs/Old Mercy: Jacqy Phillips

Creatives
Designer: Ailsa Paterson; Lighting Designer: Nigel Levings
Composer: Hilary Kleinig; Sound Designer: Andrew Howard
Accent Coach: Jennifer Innes; Assistant Director: Annabel Matheson
Intimacy/Fight Choreographer: Ruth Fallon

Mark Saturno as Jack Maggs
State Theatre South Australia

Though I know Great Expectations from my teenage reading – most fascinated by the hero ‘Pip’, his hope of marrying Estelle, and the character of Miss Havisham, ‘a rich and grim lady…who led a life of seclusion’ – I never thought much about Abel Magwitch, alias ‘Provis’, ‘an escaped convict’.  

Now, watching Samuel Adamson’s in many ways quite remarkable play, I find it is unfortunate that I haven’t yet read Peter Carey’s story of the life of Magwitch, alias ‘Jack Maggs’, convicted of theft and sent to New South Wales ‘for the term of his natural life’.  

So here I am, watching a theatrical interpretation of a fiction twice removed.  As Jack Maggs arrives secretly back in London, is he the same character as the Magwitch I knew?  If you want the answer, you couldn’t do better than start at Chapter XL – the beginning of the third stage of Pip’s expectations – on Page 3ll where he tells Pip his real name, but they agree to use an assumed name ‘Provis’ and to call him Pip’s uncle.

Confused already?  In Great Expectations there are 38 characters, listed before you begin to read.   In Jack Maggs, the play, there are only 16 characters played by 8 actors, seemingly covering something like a new version of Chapters 36-42 of Great Expectations – except that there’s no Tobias Oates, 'mesmerist', or any of the others in Dickens’ story.  Perhaps I shouldn’t ever have read or have had Great Expectations in the first place – even though Carey’s Tobias Oates insists that reading the literary canon is essential!

On stage, the basic story of Jack Maggs’ life in Australia, and his type of character, is much the same as Magwitch telling Pip in Great Expectations, about how he was given a ticket of leave and became wealthy.  But now, as you can find out from the Study Guide at 

https://statetheatrecompany.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Jack-Maggs-Study-Guide2.pdf ,
The story follows the enigmatic ex-convict Jack Maggs (Carey’s version of Magwitch)
returning to London from Australia and embarking on a relentless quest to find his
‘son’ Henry Phipps, who has mysteriously disappeared. Maggs soon becomes
entangled in the web of Phipps’ neighbour, Percy Buckle and his bizarre household,
where he makes a deal with young novelist and “mesmerist” Tobias Oates (or is
it Charles Dickens himself?) To find Phipps. Oates has other plans though, and in
Maggs, might just find the perfect inspiration for his new novel.

Though the acting, choreography, costumes and technical wizardry make Jack Maggs eminently watchable, I wish I had been made by, say, an excellent drama teacher to read the 34-page Study Guide first.  Then I could have made the right connections to follow the plot, and better understood the point of the thoroughly enjoyable singing of such recognisably Australian songs.

With this in mind, I certainly recommend this interesting original view of the convict origins and history of Australian colonial life.  And thoroughly support the aim of encouraging the reading of literature of the Charles Dickens kind for Years 9 – 12 as the State Theatre intends.  They might find, then, as I see it, that Great Expectations is a social satire (of course, Pip and Estelle are at last inseparable, at least according to Pip, in the final paragraph); while there is not the same degree of ironic humour in Adamson’s Jack Maggs – and I am yet to find out about Peter Carey’s version.  There’s a laugh in ‘Toby’s Oats”, at least.

Jack Maggs by Samuel Adamson
State Theatre South Australia

 

 

 

 

JACK MAGGS

 

Jack Maggs. Based on the novel by Peter Carey and  adapted by Samuel Adamson. 

Directed by Geordie Brookman. Designed by Alisa Paterson. Lighting by Nigel Levings. Composer Hilary Kleinig. Sound designer Andrew Howard. Accent coach Jennifer Innes. Assistant director Annabel Matheson. Intimacy/ fight choreographer Ruth Fallon.  Cast: Ahunim Abebe, Rachel Burke, Dale March, Jelena Nicdao, Nathan O’Keefe, Jacquy Phillips, Mark Saturno, James Smith. State Theatre Company of South Australia. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. December 5-8 2024. Bookings www.canberratheatre.org.au or 6257 2700.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

A light glares from the stage into the eyes of the audience. In the shadows a troupe of actors warm up doing their stretches and vocal exercises before the light is extinguished and the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s production of Jack Maggs begins. There is a pervasive theatricality to this touring production of Samuel Adamson’s  intriguing adaptation of Peter Carey’s reimagining of Charles Dickens Great Expectations. Designer Alisa Paterson’s strikingly visual setting, director Geordie Brookman’s physically robust staging and the company’s strong performances evoke an aura of Victorian melodrama and vaudeville.

Mark Saturno as Jack Maggs

Adamson’s adaptation drives the action forward narrated by Mercy Larkin (Ahunim Abebe ) and Magg’s desperate search for his dandy son Henry Phipps (Rachel Burke). Carey imagines the return of Pip’s benefactor and transported convict Magwitch to London after twenty five years in the penal colony of New South Wales. Mark Saturno’s performance as Jack Maggs is galvanizing, Dickens’s one dimensional and briefly  drawn character becomes a tormented victim of past abuse and exploitation in Carey’s novel and brought to life in Adamson’s adaptation.

 We empathize with Maggs’s predicament. As a child he was exploited by the thief Silas. On his return he is exploited by the author Tobias Oates (James Smith) as subject matter for his novel. Adamson weaves a complex pattern of themes around his central narrative. Maggs returns to London to find his son. He gains employment as a footman in the house of lawyer Percy Buckle (Nathan O’Keefe) ) next door to the house he bought for his son, who has disappeared. He offers to assist the novelist Oates in return for help to find Henry Phipps. And yet, in spite of the simplicity of the quest, the complexity of thematic allusions compels attention. Carey, Adamson and Brookman are all ex-pats perhaps confronting  or questioning at times their true identity in their adopted lands. It is Maggs who must confront his identity upon his return after such a long time in an alien land.  He finds himself rejected by the scornful rebukes of Ma Britten (Jacquy Phillips) and thwarted in his quest by his former compatriots.  Reality and fantasy intertwine in this beautifully staged adaptation of Carey’s enigmatic novel.

Ahunim Abebne as Mercy. Mark Saturno as Jack Maggs

Brookman draws on vaudeville, melodrama and commedia to lend the production a dynamic energy and drive that is joyfully embraced by an excellent company of actors.  The entire production is a symphony of production elements that enhance the theatrical experience.  At  times  the line between truth and fiction becomes blurred. Are the actors players in a drama or characters in a fiction?  Maggs’s monologue at the beginning of Act Two gives context to his experience and the old Mercy Larkin, played by Phillips, congratulates the actor Abebe playing her as a young woman  at the close which helps to differentiate theatre from reality. This is also helped by the Shakespearian devise of the letter to the undiscovered Phipps. Letters in the drama often offer a convenient resolution.

Nathan O'Keefe as Percy Buckle

Those with a knowledge of Great Expectations will be entertained by discovering the references. However this is not necessary to become immersed in the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s  unfolding  tale of loss and grief and hopeful redemption. If you are able to see this highly commendable production don’t miss out. If not seek out a copy of Peter Carey’s novel. Reimagining events in novels is not original but Carey’s idiosyncratic novel, Adamson’s lively and atmospheric adaptation and Brookman’s  production make Jack Maggs an intriguingly novel theatrical experience.

Photos by Matt Byrne

JACK MAGGS

Written by Samuel Adamson

Based on the novel by Peter Carey

Directed by Geordie Brookman

State Theatre Company South Australia

The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre to 7 December

 

Reviewed by Len Power 5 December 2024

 

Everyone remembers Magwitch, the convict character who appears suddenly in a foggy graveyard to the main character, the boy Pip, in the 1946 David Lean film of Charles Dickens’ novel, “Great Expectations”.

In “Jack Maggs”, author Peter Carey’s clever reworking of Dickens’ classic novel, an ex-convict, Jack Maggs (Carey’s version of Magwitch), returns from Australia to 1837 London in a determined quest to find his “son”, Henry Phipps, who has mysteriously disappeared. Taking a job in the household of Percy Buckle, he makes a deal with young novelist and “mesmerist” Tobias Oates to find Phipps. Oates (or is he Dickens himself?) has another agenda. Maybe Maggs will prove to be the perfect inspiration for his new novel.

Maggs’ longing to return to London from his convict past Australia has risks. He may be a prosperous free man in Australia now but would still be considered a criminal in London. This bond with the past reminds us that, instead of breaking free, modern-day Australia still has historical attachments to Britain.

In the State Theatre Company South Australia’s production of Samuel Adamson’s play, 1837 London comes vividly to life with its Dickensian characters and its dark depiction of the squalor, filth and class consciousness of the time.

Mark Saturno (Jack Maggs) and James Smith (Tobias Oates)

 

Mark Saturno is impressively stoic and bitter as Jack Maggs.  James Smith gives a fine, enigmatic performance as the novelist, Tobias Oates, and the ensemble cast perform the many characters in this story with skill, colour and commitment. Ahunim Abebe has an appealing warmth as Mercy Larkin, the Narrator.

Ahunim Abebe (Narrator/Mercy Larkin)

The production design by Elisa Paterson is dazzling, depicting the era of 1837 London but always reminding us that we are watching a play. Director, Geordie Brookman, uses a multitude of theatrical techniques to keep the story swiftly moving along. The use of shadows is particularly effective and the lighting design of Nigel Levings and sound design by Andrew Howard add a great deal to the creation of the atmosphere of this era in London.

Although the technical aspects of the production impress, some of the effects and the busy direction were often distracting, making the many characters and their motivations difficult to grasp.

Overall, the fine acting and clever production made this an enjoyable theatrical experience.

 

Photos by Matt Byrne

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

 

 

Bloody Murder by Ed Sala. Directed by Josh Wiseman. Canberra Repertory Society. Canberra Rep Theatre. Nov 21 -Dec. 7.

Not much can be said about Bloody Murder, except that it is a a murder mystery along the lines of a murder mystery game with a nicely detailed English manor house setting (design by Josh Wiseman) and stock murder mystery characters.

Lady Somerset  (Antonia Kitzel),  maid Jane (Steph Roberts) Devon Tremaine (Stuart Roberts) The Major (Arran McKenna) Charles (Glen Brighenti) and Emma (Holly Ross) are increasingly  conscious (though at different rates) that they are not in control. 

Murders happen, a few additional characters turn up (courtesy of actors playing more than one role), there’s lots of mayhem and eventually some kind of resolution is arrived at. 

The actors clearly enjoy not only their chief characters but also a range of other grotesques and cliches that most of them double up on. Subtlety is out the window and it’s time to be cheerfully over the top. 

It’s a very busy show too and backstage and technical have much fun with weird lighting (designer Nathan Sciberras) and lots of gunshots (sound design Nathan Pye). The script is not all that sophisticated but it might be the right choice if you want an end of year romp for actors and techies and audience alike. 

We are requested not to reveal the ending. 

Alanna Maclean

illuminate ‘24

Photography | Brian Rope

illuminate ‘24 | Friends Photographic Group

ANBG Visitor Centre Gallery | 28 November – 15 December 2024

Exhibitions staged in the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) Visitor Centre Gallery seek to explore the Australian environment through a range of creative artforms. illuminate ‘24 is the 11th annual exhibition by the Friends of the ANBG Photographic Group.

Most of the exhibits were judged for the David Cox memorial awards in a Flora category with " Grevillea" as the chosen species and a Fauna category. Canberra Times photographer Karleen Minney and I were invited to select three winners in each category (authors were not identified to us until after we had made our decisions.) 

We looked for artworks that stood out for us, distinguishing them from an overall high-quality selection of images displaying the wonderful native flora and diverse fauna, mostly with abundantly rich colour.

The Fauna Award went to Simone Slater for a delightful artwork titled Two’s company. It is a simply delightful montage of six images all featuring the same fauna – a variegated (or spotted amber) ladybug generally loved for its cuteness. Here are just three of the images. Go and see the exhibition if you can, to enjoy the complete montage.

     Two’s company 1 © Simone Slater

Two’s company 4 © Simone Slater

Two’s company 5 © Simone Slater

Slaters’ excellent photographic skills are very much evident in this work.

Second in the fauna category was Kerry Boden’s The Circular Showdown featuring a very different type of fauna – Gippsland Water Dragons. The title is spot on. The ANBG website tells us that water dragons are fast runners and strong climbers, who will quickly disappear into the bushes when scared, but if you are quiet and patient you may see them communicating to each other with little arm-waving movements. These two are communicating with each other in a very different way – the dust is flying as they circle around chasing each other. Boden has captured the event most effectively.

The Circular Showdown © Kerry Boden

Third in fauna category was Pink petals and native wings by Debbie Howard. The composition of this shot and the rich complementary colours in it draw the eye. The circular soft focus yellow shape in the background (presumably the centre of another flower) could almost be the sun. The native Halictidae lasioglossum bee can be clearly seen and is positioned well in the composition.

Pink petals and native wings © Debbie Howard

The Flora (Grevillea) Award also went to Simone Slater. Washed Out is a monochrome image with spectacular detail, both of the Grevillea lanigera (also known as a Woolly grevillea) and of the water droplets on its surface. It stands out both because it is monochrome and because of those details. The composition is also unusual with the main subject being “attached” to the top left corner of the image and the remainder being shades of grey and black. All of that combines to create an artwork that stands out.

Washed Out © Simone Slater

Second in the Flora (Grevillea) award was given to The critically endangered Tumut Grevillea with pollinator, White-naped Honeyeater. This image by artist Pam Rooney includes fauna with the flora. The honeyeater has been captured in a splendid position performing its important role as a pollinator. One eye seems to be looking directly at the camera’s lens.

The critically endangered Tumut Grevillea with pollinator, White-naped Honeyeater © Pam Rooney

The third placegetter in Flora (Grevillea) was Impression, Grevillea 'Coconut Ice'. Fanny Karouta-Manasse, unlike most other exhibitors, is showing an image which has not gone in close on some detailed section of the flora. Rather, this is an image of a largish area of a very hardy Grevillea before a background of trees. What also makes it stand out from the crowd is that it has a look and feel reminiscent of a watercolour painting. The word “impression” in the title fits the image perfectly.

Impression, Grevillea 'Coconut Ice' © Fanny Karouta-Manasse

The exhibition successfully displays, in print, numerous aspects of Australia’s beautiful natural environment as seen through the lenses of the exhibitors’ cameras.

All the prints are worthy of close examination, and I encourage readers to visit and see for themselves if possible.

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