Download Arts Reviews Ready to Set Stages Alight! What`s Best in Brisbane!

What’s On Guide
May '17
Arts
Reviews
PROFILE
QUEENSLAND
CABARET FESTIVAL
2017
Ready to
Set Stages
Alight!
What's
Best in
Brisbane!
Brisbane
Entertainment Centre
29 June - 2 July
PROFILE
Front Cover Image: Paul Kelly and Camille O’Sullivan
(star in Ancient Rain on 13 June at QPAC)
PAGE 3
Queensland Cabaret Festival 2017
1–15 JUNE 2017
Brisbane Powerhouse, Queensland Performing Arts
Centre (QPAC) and Queensland Multicultural Centre
and taken over performance spaces across the world,
offering intimate, heartfelt performances, soulful
recitals and comical narratives.
Festival Founder Alison St Ledger believes this raw
genre of story-telling makes for a night of live
entertainment as refreshing as it is compelling.
“I am thrilled with the growth of the Queensland
Cabaret Festival over the last four years, and with
such an incredibly diverse range of acts this year,
I’m confident we will attract new fans to the cabaret
genre,” St Ledger said. “This Festival offers Brisbane
audiences a truly unique opportunity to experience
the enchanting world of cabaret first-hand.”
Queensland Cabaret Festival 2017 invites you behind
the red velvet curtain to discover the scintillating
world of cabaret!
QUEENSLAND CABARET FESTIVAL IS BACK!
After three successful years, the Queensland Cabaret
Festival is returning in 2017. This year boasts an
impressive selection of international and Australian
performers ready to set stages alight at Brisbane
Powerhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre
(QPAC) and Queensland Multicultural Centre this June.
This year’s Festival is brimming with internationally
acclaimed talent including iconic Australian
singer-songwriter Paul Kelly with Irish chanteuse
Camille O’Sullivan; Grammy award-winning jazz
guitarist Bill Frisell; star of stage and screen Alan
Cumming; The Cat Empire’s front man Felix Riebl;
and the world-renowned Sierra Boggess on her debut
Australian tour.
Cabaret comes in many forms, but at its heart, it
is a form of storytelling. It can be stunningly beautiful
as well as thrilling and hilarious. It’s an ever-changing
evolution of ideas and performances,
a mix of music, song, dance, comedy and movement.
Many think of cabaret as an evening stroll down a
Paris cobblestone street, falling into a small wine bar
and listing to Edith Piaf covers. However, it is so much
more. Originating in the city of love, it has evolved
MAY 2017 WHAT’S ON GUIDE
The
Pearlfishers
Lyric Theatre, QPAC
When: 25 May – 3 June
Telephone 136 246
operaq.com.au
OperaQ serves up a star cast and
high drama in Bizet’s soul-stirring
tale. Australia’s prima diva Emma
Matthews will thrill Brisbane
audiences when she graces the
stage of the Lyric Theatre, QPAC in
Bizet’s classic opera The Pearlfishers,
presented by Opera Queensland.
The multi award-winning soprano
reprises the role of Léïla, after
critically acclaimed performances
in the Opera Australia and
PAGE 4
West Australian Opera seasons
of the production.
Ms Matthews has received more
Helpmann Awards than any other
individual artist, nine Green Room
Awards, the Mo Award, the Remy
Martin Australian Opera Award,
and was recently named Limelight
Magazine’s Australian Artist of the
Year for 2016.
She’s joined by tenor Aldo Di
Toro, bass Andrew Collis, and
London-based Australian baritone
Grant Doyle in his OperaQ debut,
directed by Michael Gow, with
award winning designs by Robert
Kemp and Matt Scott, supported
by The Queensland Symphony
Orchestra and the Opera
Queensland Chorus, conducted
by Graham Abbott. OperaQ Artistic
Director Lindy Hume believes the
beautiful and exotic grand opera
will be a joy for opera lovers and
soon-to-be opera lovers alike.
CREATIVE TEAM
Director Michael Gow
Conductor Graham Abbott
Set & Costume Designer Robert Kemp
Lighting Designer Matthew Scott
Chorus Director Narelle French
Assistant Director Rachael Edwards
CAST
Léïla Emma Matthews
Nadir Aldo Di Toro
Zurga Grant Doyle
Nourabad Andrew Collis
Opera Queensland Chorus
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
WHAT’S ON GUIDE MAY 2017
Image: Jeff Busby
Melbourne
International
Comedy
Roadshow
Wed 10 – Sat 13 May, 2017
Brisbane Powerhouse
brisbanepowerhouse.org
Buckle up Australia! The
Melbourne International Comedy
Festival Roadshow is back on the
bus, hitting the road to home
deliver the freshest and funniest
from Australia’s largest comedy
festival!
With an all-killer, no-filler cast
of Australian stars, talented
MAY 2017 WHAT’S ON GUIDE
newcomers and international
performers we’ve got all your
comedy bases covered. Featuring
Dave Callan, Carl Donnelly (UK),
Andy Saunders, Daniel Fernandes
(India) and Sharul Channa
(Singapore), the roadshow has
everything from stand-up to
sketch, slapstick to song. The
line-up presents the best of the
Festival in one hilarious show.
Don’t miss your chance to join
the laughs at the Melbourne
International Comedy Festival
Roadshow. Get on board, grab
your mates and get giggling as the
ultimate comedy roadtrip rolls into
town!
PAGE 5
Avenue Q
6–27 May
Tickets $44/
$54 meet and greet
Bookings online at
artstheatre.com.au
From the makers of The Book of
Mormon, a politically incorrect
musical comedy with a cast of
quirky puppets and a few humans
for good measure.
If you don’t know about this
seemingly cute, family puppet
musical, the first thing we’ll say
is DON’T BRING YOUR KIDS!
When Cameron Macintosh,
the world’s most successful
musical producer, announced that
Avenue Q, the Tony Award-winning
PAGE 6
puppet musical would be closing
its three-year run at the Noel
Coward Theatre in London, there
was a stampede at the box office.
This is a more grown-up version
of those loveable Sesame
Street muppets who dance, sing,
fight and (wait for it) have sex –
on stage. Facing unemployment,
relationship problems and
addictions, these muppets will
make sure you never look
at Sesame Street quite the same
way again.
“Avenue Q is always a huge hit
with Brisbane audiences. After
completing our second sell-out
season last year, we had a waiting
list of hundreds of people who
missed out, so the audience has
spoken and we are back
again!”– John Boyce, Artistic
Director
‘The musical of the decade’
– Sunday Times
‘Witty, catchy and darn charming
– Evening Standard
WHAT’S ON GUIDE MAY 2017
Natalie Weir's
Behind Closed
Doors
Presented by Expressions
Dance Company and
Queensland Performing
Arts Centre
19–27 May 2017
Playhouse, QPAC
Unleash your inner voyeur with
this scintillating peek through a
hotel room door.
In this brand new work from
Expressions Dance Company's
Artistic Director and
choreographer, Natalie Weir,
Behind Closed Doors draws you
into a hotel, where the private
MAY 2017 WHAT’S ON GUIDE
lives of its late night guests and
staff are exposed.
Showcasing breathtakingly
beautiful and athletic dance by
the exceptional Expressions Dance
Company, this poetic kiss-and-tell
reveals the darkness, playfulness
and fragility of human nature.
Behind Closed Doors features
seductive jazz performed live on
stage by Queensland jazz trio,
Trichotomy, with special guests,
vocalist Kristin Berardi and
saxophonist Rafael Karlen.
Book tickets now at qpac.com.au
or call 136 246
TRAINING PARTNER
Expressions Dance Company acknowledges
the assistance of the Queensland
Government through Arts Queensland
and the Australian Government through
the Australia Council, its arts funding and
advisory body.
PAGE 7
The Village
A La Boite and MDA Ltd
Production
15–26 May, 2017
La Boite Theatre Company
laboite.com.au/the-village
Ordinary people in extraordinary
situations. The Village showcases
the cultural diversity of Australia
and honours the courage, strength
and determination of the women,
men and children who have made
this country their new home.
The Village uses the verbatim
stories of refugees and people
seeking asylum to guide audiences
on an experiential journey.
Witness how ordinary
people have found themselves
in extraordinary situations
PAGE 8
and persevered to tell their
life-changing stories. Audiences
will engage with these stories
first hand through an interactive
performance experience.
The Village has been created
specifically with secondary
students in mind, but everyone is
welcome at The Village to enjoy
this collaborative theatre project.
“It felt really real, authentic.
Being immersed into it, you can
appreciate the stories more and
actually feel part of that journey.”
Teacher
WHAT’S ON GUIDE MAY 2017
Freedom
Then,
Freedom Now
5 May – 1 October 2017
State Library of Queensland
slq.qld.gov.au/freedom
Question the notion of freedom,
reflect on our collective past, and
explore civil rights in State Library
of Queensland’s (SLQ) exhibition,
Freedom Then, Freedom Now.
The exhibition draws on SLQ’s
historical collections to explore the
freedoms enjoyed and restricted in
Queensland, and examine what
happens when individual rights
intersect with collective good.
Freedom Then, Freedom Now
MAY 2017 WHAT’S ON GUIDE
takes a uniquely Queensland look
at freedoms won and lost in the
state since the 1950s across a
number of themes including
censorship, marriage, citizenship,
dress and travel.
Queensland has been an
epicentre of some major advances
and hindrances to personal
liberties – from Eddie Mabo’s
Native Title victory in 1992 to the
anti-consorting laws and pink
jumpsuits introduced in 2013 – and
the exhibition offer Queenslanders
the opportunity to learn more
about both the historical facts and
social context.
Image: Second moratorium in Brisbane,
1970 Vietnam Moratorium, with banner, 1978,
Glen O’Malley, John Oxley Library, SLQ
PAGE 9
4MBS Festival
of Classics
Sun 28 May – Sun 18 Jun
Brisbane and Sunshine Coast
4mbs.com.au
The 24th annual 4MBS Festival
of Classics focuses on The British
Connection. The spectacular
Festival opening on Sunday 28
May sees 300 musicians take
to the stage to perform Holst’s
The Planets in the grand Brisbane
City Hall Auditorium. The beloved
Piano Marathon closes the Festival
on Sunday 18 June with five
concerts featuring many of
Brisbane’s most renowned pianists.
Hear Elgar’s Enigma Variations,
Beethoven’s Rule Britannia
PAGE 10
Variations and music by Chopin,
Mozart and more.
In between, enjoy sublime
performances by the Australian
Piano Duo, Louise King (cello),
Leslie Martin-Nightingale
(soprano), the Festival String
Quartet and others as they play
music of Handel, Vaughan
Williams, Gilbert & Sullivan and
many more. The Festival also
includes film screenings and free
talks in local libraries.
Experience moving classical
music in full force, and up close
and personal, with the most
accomplished musicians
Queensland has to offer.
Buy tickets at 4mbs.com.au
or (07) 3847 1717.
Proudly supported by
4MBS Festival of Classics
is supported by the
Queensland Government
through Arts Queensland
WHAT’S ON GUIDE MAY 2017
Shirley
Valentine
The original
desperate
housewife
Tue 13 June, 7.30pm
Wed 14 June, 11am & 7.30pm
Gardens Theatre,
QUT Gardens Point
gardenstheatre.qut.edu.au
Shirley Valentine is a funny and
heart-warming one-woman play
by the award-winning Willy
Russell, starring the effervescent
Mandi Lodge (Menopause the
Musical; Always … Patsy Cline).
MAY 2017 WHAT’S ON GUIDE
As a middle-aged working class
Liverpool housewife, Shirley can't
shake the feeling her life has
stagnated. On the wrong side of
40 with a stale marriage and a
battered self-esteem, she wistfully
yearns for something more. When
her best friend wins an
all-expenses-paid trip-of-alifetime to Greece, Shirley realises
it's the escape she’s been looking
for. She packs her bags and heads
for freedom, leaving a note on the
kitchen cupboard, “Gone to
Greece. Back in two weeks!”. Under the warmth of the
Mediterranean sun and liberated
from her identity as 'just a wife
and mother', Shirley rediscovers
her feisty former self, re-igniting a
flame of happiness she long
thought extinguished.
Presented by HIT Productions
PAGE 11
Image: CHRISfotographik
PAGE 12
Sweet Night
Music
August 11 – 27
The Spring Hill Reservoir
ticketmaster.com.au
Underground Opera’s 10 year
celebrations continue with
August’s West End to Broadway
– In the Reservoir VOLUME FOUR!
Enjoy a concert of show stoppers,
filling Brisbane’s Underground
Opera House, the historic
150-year-old Spring Hill Reservoir,
six metres below Wickham
Terrace, with uplifting, intriguing
and sensational musical theatre
tunes, delivered by world class
performers. Laugh, cry and cheer
with UOC this August!
www.undergroundopera.com.au
West End
to Broadway:
VOLUME 4
with Queensland
Symphony Orchestra
Sun 25 Jun, 11.30am
Concert Hall, QPAC
qso.com.au
Take a nocturnal stroll through
music of the night with
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
and jovial host Guy Noble. The
powerfully evocative program
includes arias from Mozart’s
famous (and furious) Queen of the
Night, excerpts from Sondheim’s
playful musical A Little Night
Music, Dvořák’s quiet Nocturne
and Debussy’s masterwork
imbued with French colours of the
night. The evening will also star
stunning sopranos Rachel Pines
and Morgan England-Jones.
Swallow
Creative
Brisbane
Website
PAGE 13
creativebrisbane.com.au
Want to keep abreast with the
latest in arts and entertainment
news in Brisbane?
Our newly launched website is
packed with creative events
including: musicals, theatre,
cabaret, art, comedy, performance,
events for kids, conferences and
much more. This gives you a
central hub to find out what's on.
So whether you are looking for
a way to keep the kids away from
their dreaded screens during
public holidays, or keeping out of
town visitors entertained – you can
find out what's best in Brisbane.
Give creativebrisbane.com.au
a whirl today!
MAY 2017 WHAT’S ON GUIDE
By Stef Smith
Co-Presented by e.g.
& Metro Arts:
Metro Arts
109 Edward Street
metroarts.com.au
Tel 07 3002 7100
Three strangers cross paths.
Rebecca has broken up, is breaking
down and has slashed her face.
Sam’s exploring a new identity in
an unfamiliar world and Anna has
not left her apartment for two
years. Each one is poised
precariously on the tipping point.
Will they overcome their urge to
self-destruct?
“There are so many reasons to love
this piece from Stef Smith.”
The Independent
“An elegant and glowing piece of
21st century magic realism.”
The Scotsman
WHAT’S ON GUIDE MAY 2017
Powerhouse
Double Bill:
He Dreamed
a Train
Eve
Force of Circumstance and
Nest Ensemble in partnership
with Brisbane Powerhouse
29 June – 16 July
Brisbane Powerhouse
Tickets 07 3358 8600 or visit
brisbanepowerhouse.org.au
PAGE 14
Suitable tor ages 10+
He Dreamed a Train
“It’s a completely fresh kind
of theatrical experience.”
Courier Mail
The critically acclaimed He
Dreamed a Train returns to
Brisbane Powerhouse with
multi-award winning artist
Margi Brown Ash and
accomplished director Benjamin
Knapton. Combining stunning
digital projection and compelling
storytelling this show is "a triumph
of its kind” Daily Review. A family’s joys and challenges
are revealed in this special show.
Suitable tor ages 10+
Eve
“Every aspect of Eve is a
refined sensory experience …“
Australian Stage
Brisbane’s own doyen of theatre,
Margi Brown Ash, crawls beneath
the skin of Australia’s Virginia
Woolf: the enigmatic Eve Langley.
Directed by Leah Mercer, Eve is the
fictional story of a writer caught
somewhere between the domestic
and the artistic; a story of a
reluctant mother and passionate
artist; a story for anyone who’s
ever felt as if they never belonged.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for
the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and proudly supported by Brisbane City Council.
Generous support has also been received from Metro Arts Theatre, Blue Room Theatre, PlayLab
and Curtin University.
WHAT’S ON GUIDE MAY 2017