The artists of Sydney Festival look to the world and to within to unearth performances that speak directly to the present moment
In The Heights: Lin Manuel-Miranda should require no introduction, but in the unlikely event that he does, In The Heights is the quadruple Tony Award-winning modern musical that announced the Hamilton creator and Moana composer’s presence on the world stage. A feature film is slated for 2020.Grant Leslie
Article 14.1: In a 10-day durational performance, the Australian artist Phuong Ngo will relive the momentous journey of his parents’ immigration by boat from Vietnam in 1981. Named for the article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”), Ngo’s performance will see him fold thousands of origami boats and listen to recorded interviews with Vietnamese refugees. On the final night, a boat burning ceremony will take place at sunset in memory of those who lost their lives at sea.Alex Clayton
Daughter: In this Australian premiere, a controversial and confronting confessional one-man monologue, theatre creator and actor Adam Lazarus plays The Father and confronts the insidious consequences of toxic masculinity.Alejandro Santiago
Counting and Cracking: Dinner and a show! Sixteen actors represent four generations of a Sri Lankan family in this world premiere written by S. Shakthidharan and co-staged by Belvoir and Co-Curious about Australia as a land of refuge, staged in Sydney Town Hall and served with a communal meal.Daniel Boud
Nick Cave, Until: In one of the year’s most-anticipated art events, the American artist Nick Cave (not to be confused with the Australian musician of the same name) stages the Australian interpretation of his mammoth work, Until. Originally exhibited at Mass MoCA, Until’s local iteration will be larger than ever and will target global issues around race, gun control and many of the ‘isms’ that are unique to Australian audiences. There will also be a strong local contingent of artists contributing works to this bound-to-be-spectacular installation unlike any preceding it.Jamie Prinz
HOME: This large-scale performance is billed as a house party that the entire audience is invited to. Beginning with an empty stage, the titular home is built before your eyes, telling the story of everyone who will go on to inhabit its four walls over generations. The theatre-maker Geoff Sobelle created HOME after discovering layer upon layer of kitchen floor laid by former residents of his 100-year-old house in Philadelphia. ‘What makes a house a home’, he wondered? This is his answer.Maria Baranova
Biladurang: The neutral space of the hotel room (at QT Sydney, specifically) is the setting of this deeply intimate solo work by the dancer, choreographer and Wiradjuri man Joel Bray. Audiences don bath robes as Bray tells the Dreamtime story of the Biladurang – the platypus – as it intersects with his own search for the self.Pippa Samaya
Neneh Cherry: The Swedish artist brings her fifth album in 30 years to Sydney. Produced by Four Tet, Broken Politics and its 2014 predecessor Blank Project will be performed by Cherry, who will continue taking on the moment’s drastic social upheaval through the personal lens.Wolfgang Tillmans
Just not Australian: One of many events to interrogate the subject of Australian identity, this exhibition features work by artists from diverse backgrounds and schools of thought, including Soda_Jerk (pictured above), Vincent Namitjira, Abdul Abdullah, Cigdem Aydemir, Karla Dickens and more, who will examine national mythology through the lens of immigration, satire, larrikinism and resistance.Soda_Jerk, ‘TERROR NULLIUS’ (detail), 2018, HD video, 54 mins, courtesy the artists
The Chat: The word ‘immersive’ is often bandied about in the context of performance, often mistakenly. The Chat, however, takes immersive to a new level. The theatre maker and former parole officer JR Brennan worked with actors, former prisoners, criminologists and academics to create a compelling role play fantasy set in an imagined future where a real-life ex-offender takes on the role of parole officer interviewing a version of themselves. In the matter of their freedom, the audience takes on the role of the parole board who must decide. Kasia Sykus
Beware of Pity: This technically-adventurous staging of Austrian Stefan Zweig’s 1939 novel feels especially prescient given its subject matter. A portrait of a Europe stumbling toward chaos, Zweig wrote his novel while exiled in Britain and it follows the misadventures of a young cavalry officer who falls in love with (and breaks the heart of) the partially paralised daughter of a local landowner. She ends her life – no spoilers – setting Anton on a path to set things right.Gianmarco Bresadola
Nakhane: The South African performer Nakhane has the voice (and face) of an angel, and has overcome a great deal many personal struggles (a turbulent adolescence reconciling his sexual and spiritual identities) to arrive at the cusp of star status. As both a musician and an actor who has elicited comparisons to Grace Jones, Prince and Perfume Genius, Nakhane is certainly one to watch.Tarryn Hatchett
Announced this evening, the program for Sydney Festival 2019 faces, once again, a rather unique challenge. Per tradition, Sydney Festival both reignites the new year’s cultural festive season (after a weeklong respite from new year’s celebrations) and sets the tone for the year to come.
This year’s program is a truly exhaustive offering of stellar performances from the disparate worlds of the theatre, opera, dance, performance and visual art, as well as circus, burlesque and any other number of works that defy easy categorisation. Included amongst the blockbuster program are 18 world premieres, five Australian premieres and eight Australian exclusives that straddle the spectrum of contemporary culture from haute theatrical collaborations with international luminaries to rousing parties with truly global inflections.
It’s a highly considered offering in which all can find an in-road into some truly important conversations facilitated by dynamic performances, regardless of where you’ve come from. In the gallery above, preview 12 select programming highlights from the Sydney Festival 2019 calendar and discover more below.
