The summer cultural calendar is notorious for being difficult for finding art events to go to. The increasing heat, school holidays and beach hysteria don’t help matters either.
Berkoff’s work is always worthwhile because of his ability to present a world of the mundane as an epic struggle, where the everyman is catapulted to the exalted heights of a Greek tragic hero.”
But there is plenty out there if you look, and for both adults and kids. It’s different across the states, but interestingly enough the most challenging city to find a bit a culture, is in Australia’s art capital, Melbourne.
Well, it’s dead mostly and most drive and/or fly off to some coast where the heat is more welcome.
Luckily Melbourne has the Midsumma Festival with its largely queer program and the range is excellent for both indoor acts and out. Midsumma has an interesting story telling rendition of Homer’s The Odyssey by Canadian duo Jan Andrews and Jennifer Cayley.
In this one-hour adaptation of this epic work you can experience perhaps not the whole of The Odyssey, but enough to give you a full sense of the hero’s epic tale.
“We’ve split it into three parts and within those parts are the key stories,” said Jan Andrews, adding “there are chunks in each of these parts of very familiar stories so people can get a feel of the whole of the story as well as the general rhythm of the it.”
This retelling of The Odyssey by Andrews and Cayley is for one night only, January 24, but Andrews will also be giving a fiction-writing workshop on January 17. Now, if you’re still in the mood for the classics, but not necessarily of the Hellenic persuasion, don’t forget The Botanical Gardens is showing Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and Wind in the Willows.
Sydney is a city that rarely pretends to be anything else other than what it is, a beach-centric community. Ironically though, it does stage its yearly International Arts Festival in January, which is strangely antithetical for a city that celebrates the sun and the surf.
One therefore wonders why their main arts festival is not in the middle of their winter. Brisbane’s Powerhouse is always a reliable venue to find worthwhile art and The Moonlight Cinema is close by if film is more your thing. One show that can be recommended is The List Operators.
It is a kid’s show, but these boys are perverse enough to keep the most jaded of adults happy. Adelaide right at the start of the year has the biggest excuse of all for having not much on, because it’s gearing up for its International Arts Festival in February.
This year though it just The Fringe and they’re still working out whether this is a good idea for audience numbers and if The Garden of Unearthly Delights, although delightfully central, helps or hampers the Fringe’s identity. This year, there’s plenty in the Greek department to wet your appetite.
First up is Unke Oniron, which is a cross-cultural visual exploration of women’s spirituality, merging traditional Greek mythology and Aboriginal dreamtime. The exhibition launch will include a traditional welcome from a Kaurna elder and a story alongside some Greek story telling from respected Elders accompanied by Greek and Indigenous traditional music.
This exhibition will be available throughout the Fringe presenting a range of female Greek and Indigenous artist’s at the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre. Next is Berkoff in Two Acts presented by the Caveat Theatre Company and their production combines two of Steven Berkoff’s most popular one act plays, Dog and Lunch.
“Berkoff’s work is always worthwhile because of his ability to present a world of the mundane as an epic struggle, where the everyman is catapulted to the exalted heights of a Greek tragic hero,” said their artistic director Jonathon Bragg.
Of course there’s Festival Hellenika, Adelaide’s annual arts festival dedicated to the “maintenance, development, promotion and celebration of Hellenic links in the Arts”. The festival, from late February to early May, welcomes anyone Greek with an artistic bent to get involved.
“There’s Voice and Visions which people can still apply for, just log onto our website for more info,” said Eva Dimopoulos. “There’s the Young Music Concert, which is for the kids and the age range for that is quite broad, and, of course, Music Hellenika which has tickets on sale right now,” she added.
Perth, like Sydney has its festival at this time and their line up looks great, but they are sequentially sharing some of their shows with Sydney. So check your dates so as not to double up.
Finally, Tasmania has Hobart’s cutting edge Festival of Music and Art which is featuring the great Phillip Glass and Amanda Palmer. So, once you’re sick of the beach or the air-conditioning is on the blink, there are plenty of diverse events to enjoy for this year’s summer holidays