Melbourne International Arts Festival

We've Launched - 2010 Program Overview

_{photo: Carla Gottgens}

From 8 to 23 October Melbourne Festival brings to venues across the city an unparalleled feast of theatre, music, dance, opera, visual arts, multimedia and outdoor events from some of the finest creative minds of our times. As with much contemporary art practice, the boundaries between traditional art forms are continually blurring and in this Festival program you’ll find a range of works which defy classification.

From Danish contemporary opera auteurs Hotel Pro Forma we have Tomorrow, in a year, which could be described as an opera, but is also very much a dance piece, an incredible visual spectacle and features contemporary music by Swedish electro pop duo The Knife.

Melbourne composer David Chesworth has created another ‘opera’, but one that is best described as a sound installation to be performed in a visual arts space. Richter/Meinhof-Opera can be experienced at ACCA.

Japanese artist Hiroaki Umeda is described as a choreographer, dancer, sound artist and lighting designer. His two dance works. Adapting for Distortion and Haptic are actually immersive installations for body, light and sound and sure to delight technology and multimedia buffs as much as movement lovers.

Toneelgroep Amsterdam make their Australian debut with the large-scale production Opening Night, a theatrical treatment of the John Cassavetes film classic of the same name. Featuring a combination of performance and live video feed, the audience is given a unique insight into the workings of both theatre and film, as they experience a film of a play about a film about a play that is getting ready to open.

To truly sum up the events in this year’s Festival that are difficult to classify, we present a work that almost defies description. Stifters Dinge from Heiner Goebbels is a play without actors, a performance without performers and a concert without musicians. It is music, theatre, art installation and more all rolled into one exquisite production.

For those who like the idea of straight theatre there is certainly plenty on offer, including two very different one man shows – Ilbijerri Theatre Company’s Jack Charles V The Crown co-written and performed by Jack Charles himself, and The Beckett Trilogy, a one-man tour-de-force performance of three of Samuel Becket’s greatest novels, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable. Dance will also feature in the Festival with a definite highlight being the Melbourne debut of the Akram Khan Company with the world premiere of Vertical Road.

For music lovers we have a great selection, from a residency of one of the greatest living composers, Thomas Adès, and the debut of the USA’s Calder Quartet, to a performance by the Australian Art Orchestra and two new sound and visual installations in North Melbourne, epi-thet and en masse. And the Forum Theatre will once again host an eclectic range of contemporary alternative music from Australia and around the world at the Beck’s Festival Bar.

The 2010 visual arts program features a number of mostly free installations and exhibitions in galleries round the city (and beyond) all exploring or touching on the themes of spirituality and mortality through a diverse range of works in photography, video, sculpture and more.

All the action of the 2010 Melbourne Festival kicks off on Friday 8 October and everyone is invited to the celebration at the free outdoor spectacle K@osmos, where aerial choreography and live rock music come together for some fast and furious flying family fun from outdoor theatre group Grupo Puja!. Our opening show in the State Theatre is the exhilarating Australian premiere of Michael Clark Company’s come, been and gone. Set to the music of David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, this smash-hit production has been described by the UK’s Observer as “an outrageously gorgeous piece of modern dance”.

The 2010 Festival has a number of hubs for you to hang out at before and after seeing your event. For your pre- and post-show drink and chat, head to Seventh Heaven at the Arts Centre, Curve Bar and mingle with Festival artists and audiences. Or soak up the carnival atmosphere at fortyfivedownstairs, the home of Finucane & Smith’s Carnival of Mysteries. Here you can experience all manner of weird and wonderful performances and artistic experiences from a range of circus stars, sideshow queens, poets, daredevils, painters, playwrights, aerialists and food artistes. A visit to the carnival will certainly be an experience to remember. Finally the Beck’s Festival Bar at Forum Theatre is the perfect place to head after seeing another show, as the metal, psychedelic rock, hip-hop, surf and pop continues long into the night.

This year we have saved one of our best events until last, as we close the 2010 Festival with the huge concert celebration Seven Songs to Leave Behind. This special one-off event features an incredible line-up of extraordinary voices each performing seven songs that hold special meaning to them. Performers include Sinead O’Connor, John Cale, Meshell Ndegeocello, Rickie Lee Jones, Gurrumul Yunupingu and the Black Arm Band.

And that’s only an overview of what’s on offer this year. You can check out all the details on this website and with tickets already on sale you can start booking your 2010 Melbourne Festival experience now!

You can download a pdf version of the program here or you can pick up a hard copy of the Program Guide at a range of cafes, bars and arts venues around town, thanks to our Festival distribution company Step Right Up!