Poppy Seed Festival announce inaugural program

The One_editorialThe inaugural Poppy Seed Festival have announced four theatre productions with seasons to take place at Trades Hall, The Butterfly Club and fortyfivedownstairs from Wednesday 11 November – Sunday 13 December 2015.

Under Creative Producer Fleur Murphy, Director Alister Smith and Assistant Director Ben Adams TBC Theatre will launch the Poppy Seed Festival with Project: Hysteria – the beautifully epic coupling of two rarely performed one-act plays by Tennessee Williams which are considered precursors to his greatest works The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Trades Hall: 11 – 22 November 2015.

From 15 Minutes comes a rework of Major General Kenneth Mackay’s 1895 Australian classic The Yellow Wave – a romance of the Asiatic invasion – directed by Beng Oh, written by Jane Miller and featuring Keith Brockett and John Marc Desengano playing a huge cast of characters in multiple accents. The Butterfly Club: 17 – 29 November 2015.

Next on the program Matilda Award Nominee Elizabeth Millington directs performers Emma Hall, Jean Goodwin and Alice Cavanagh, leading you from reality to transcendence to self realisation in an epic tale of the quintessential ‘good night out’ in Gin Sister by Man with a Plan. Trades Hall: 25 November – 6 December 2015.

Fire Curtain Co. close the festival with Vicky Jones’ Verity Bargate Award-­winning smash hit The One directed by Tanya Dickson, with text reimagined for Australian audiences by Rachel Perks, and starring Wentworth’s Kasia Kaczmarek, Red Stitch ensemble member Ben Prendergast and Elbow Room’s Emily Tomlins. fortyfivedownstairs: 2 – 13 December 2015.

“We are excited to announce three world premieres and one Australian premiere from some of Melbourne’s most exciting theatrical talent for the first Poppy Seed Festival,” says Festival Director Philip Hayden. “It was great to see such a high calibre of applicants, but these four works stood out for their provocative themes and their connection to a range of audiences. We cannot wait to share these stories with you on Melbourne’s stages”

Launching earlier this year, the Poppy Seed Festival is designed to financially and logistically support artists to develop and deliver their work by providing a venue for their performance season, marketing and artistic support, as well as an allocation of $7,500.00 towards production costs.

For more information, visit: www.poppyseed.net.au for details.

Image: Emily Tomlins, Kasia Kaczmarek & Ben Prendergast – The One by Fire Curtain Co