At the pinnacle of the Northern Territory’s dry season, the Darwin Festival returns with a program set to excite, tantalise and intrigue. With Artistic Director Edwina Lunn returning for her second year at the helm, audiences can expect a program brimming with offerings that explore what it is that makes up This Territory Life.
The 2013 Darwin Festival returns across two precincts with shows at both well-loved Festival Park and George’s Green where audiences will enjoy outdoor entertainment amongst the plethora of superb eateries that have become synonymous with the Darwin Festival experience.
With a special section of the program dedicated to a focus on Indonesia, the Festival is proud to present Australian premieres of Papermoon Puppetry’s Mwathirika and an evening of hipster tunes with Jakarta’s White Shoes & The Couples Company, a band who sport a stylin’ name to match their super hip sound.
The program also includes world premieres of a collaboration between Darwin Symphony Orchestra and local indie rockers Green Stone Garden; Tracks Dance Company’s Zombies in the Banyan Tree; and hip hop lady MC Candy B’s saucy as ever Hot Brown Honey Burlesque.
Dance lovers will be thrilled to welcome the NT premiere of Shaun Parker & Company’s colourful dance mash-up Happy As Larry and for another Territory first, welcome gypsy troubadour extraordinaire Martin Martini who brings his musical madness to The Lighthouse.
Darwin Festival is proud to announce the inclusion of high profile internationals such as New York’s cabaret wunderkind Taylor Mac; the UK’s ever-risqué country music singer-cum-comedian Tina C and Ireland’s energetically wacky ponydance at Throb nightclub.
The music program features a range of acts including The Ape, a new incarnation for Tex Perkins, one of Darwin’s best-loved frontman; Mia Dyson, Jen Cloher and Liz Stringer, three magnificent women performing together; swaggering storyteller Wagons and Darwin’s International Songwriting Competition winner, David Garnham and the Reasons to Live, among others.
Ilbijerri Theatre presents an Australian legend, elder and activist in Jack Charles V The Crown; a punchy, real-deal theatre venture on the subject of boxing in Roslyn Oades’ I’m Your Man; the psychedelic, cross-cultural dance-theatre DasSHOKU SHAKE! from Yumi Umiumare and Japan’s legendary Theatre Group GUMBO.
Mozart’s Don Giovanni, presented in all its glamour and luxury by Opera Australia, and the return of Trevor Ashley (Liza on an E) with his remarkable Darwin Symphony Orchestra collaboration featuring Shirley Bassey hits in Diamonds are for Trevor.
In a town full of families, this year’s Festival also has boundless opportunities for youngsters to get involved. Renowned children’s book illustrator Shaun Tan (The Lost Thing) and composer Ben Walsh will bring to life Tan’s graphic novel The Arrival with a tapestry of live instruments and projections in The Amphitheatre.
The Darwin Waterfront will be transformed by Polytoxic’s mesmerising technicolour world of Trade Winds, a free walking-on-water spectacular that will bring an extra special sparkle to an already luminous Darwin sunset moment.
Darwin Festival
Various locations
Season: 8 – 25 August 2013
Bookings: (08) 8943 4222 or online at: www.darwinfestival.org.au
For more information and full programme, visit: www.darwinfestival.org.au for details.
Image: Trade Winds by Polytoxic