After an inaugural year that exceeded all expectations, the
Sydney Fringe Festival is back, bigger and better in 2011. Based on the success of 2010, the Festival has expanded beyond its home in the inner west, to include venues in Surry Hills, Kings Cross, Paddington and the Oxford Street cultural quarter. With a focus on independent and multidisciplinary performances, the festival will hold over 200 events in 24 days across 66 venues.
Last night The PACT Centre for Emerging Artists in Erskineville hosted a Fringe Festival event showcasing three performance pieces that demonstrated the diversity of work on show at the festival.
re:LEASE is described as "a farcical black comedy of witty remarks". What starts out innocuously with a group of people looking to rent a flat in trendy Manky Creek, soon takes a surreal twist when a cross dressing estate agent begins to reveal some of her darker secrets. Prospective renters Mark, Sophie and Jemima are drawn into a world of depravity and deception, forcing them to confront the evil within themselves. Drawing heavily on the nonsensical, this play is a 30 minute journey through a world of "slaves, masters and snail times". Re:LEASE runs from the 9th to the 18th of September. Check the
venue website for time and prices.
Clown Lights is circus piece with a difference. Writer, director and performer, Alice Mary Cooper (no relation to the 70's/ 80's rock god) has picked up a bag belonging to a woman hit by a bus. She is now performing in the woman's place and is getting herself into a tremendous pickle. Sporting a bright red clown's nose, Alice pieces together a picture of the bus victim through the objects she finds in her bag. Both witty and insightful, Clown Lights explores our relationships with possessions and what they say about us. There are also some hilarious references to the history of performance art, and poignant reflections on modern life, including a bank statement read as poetry. Clown Lights runs from the 9th to the 18th of September as part of the Sydney film festival. Check the Sydney Fringe Festival, or venue's website for more details.
Dust was the final, and most moving of the three works on display last night. Created and directed by dancer Emiline Forster, the piece uses interpretive dance, music and video projection to explore the story of Glenn Beutel, the last man remaining in the Queensland town of Acland which has depopulated due to its proximity to an open cut coal mine. Forster's physical prowess is on full display in this gripping work which explores the effect of coal mining on landscapes, communities as well as the psychological states of those whose lives are affected. The imagery is at times confronting, but this is a beautiful piece with deeper resonances about the way the resources boom is shaping life in Australia.
The PACT Centre for Emerging Artists in Erskineville is focused on the support, development and production of experimental, interdisciplinary and collaborative performance. Based in a converted television studio, the performance space is black and asymmetrical, and allows for innovative performance and experimentation with the use of space. PACT has performances running all year round. Check the
venues website for more information about upcoming events.
