Drums, pyrotechnics and brazen passion come together in Les Tambours de Feu, a spectacular free event that will kick your Melbourne Festival experience off like no other. The tradition of the Correfoc (fire-run) is one of the world’s most ecstatic sensory bombardments, and for 20 years Basque company Deabru Beltzak has been setting the world ablaze with ritualistic percussion and extravagant costumes – loaded with a healthy dose of fireworks. Get down to this bombastic show of creative flair and (quite literally) explosive performance.
Thursday October 6 -Saturday October 8, Federation Square
Helmed by renowned choreographger and director Lucy Guerin, The Dark Chorus unfolds as a dramatic and shadowy event. The dramatic chorus is both the voice of the people and of your most intimate thoughts, a moving sculpture of bodies and concepts made flesh in a new work that reaches back to the world of ancient theatre and pulls forth something truly captivating.
Thursday October 6 -Wednesday October 12, Meat Market
Buried Country takes audiences on a journey into the heart of Indigenous country music. Performed as a moving song cycle, Buried Country investigates and unearths this lesser known component of Australian musical history featuring singers and songwriters from across the country and from multiple generations. Expect the likes of elders Roger Knox, Auriel Andrew and L.J. Hill, Central Desert legend Warren H Williams and younger artists such as Leah Flanagan, Luke Peacock and James Henry.
Wednesday October 12 and Thursday October 13, Melbourne Recital Centre
Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
The National Theatre of Scotland make their long awaited Melbourne debut with this acclaimed musical play that points its lens towards youth on the cusp of adulthood. The story follows six Catholic schoolgirls as they travel to Edinburgh for a choral competition. However, it appears these sopranos are more interested in sex, smokes and Sambuca. Punctuated with brilliant performances, harmonies and more foul-mouthed trash talk than you could poke a stick at, Our Ladies is both bittersweet, hilarious and unabashedly uplifting.
Thursday October 6 – Saturday October 22, Arts Centre Melbourne
Animated feature The Triplets of Belleville swept the globe in 2003, going on to become somewhat of a cult classic garnering both critical and cultural acclaim from many. For some, the true highlight of this film is its Oscar-nominated soundtrack from Benoît Charest, which draws its inspiration from 1920s Paris and simmering jazz. Now, Charest is heading to Australia for the first time. Along with his Le Terrible Orchestre de Bellevill, the film will be projected on to the big screen along with live scoring throughout.
Friday October 14 and Sunday October 16, Melbourne Recital Centre
Ajak Kwai comes to Melbourne Festival with soulful, inspiring music that draws from her Dinka heritage. As song and storytelling intertwine, life experiences of asylum, exile, love and cows – beloved animals of the Dinka – are told. Singing in Arabic, Sudanese and English, Kwai brings a unique and optimistic voice to Melbourne Festival that shouldn’t be missed.
Wednesday October 19, The Toff In Town
Robbie Thomson: XFRMR / MESS: Live
Glasgow-based artist Robbie Thomson is delivering a truly electric set for Melbourne Festival, taking inspiration from Nikola Tesla’s 1891 invention, the Tesla Coil, a device that renders electricity visible. Thomson has harnessed the sonic power of Tesla’s invention, synthesising the ever-changing sonic geometries of the apparatus to produce distorted tones and percussive stabs – offering an audible insight into the subatomic relationships that govern the universe. Meanwhile, the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (M.E.S.S) will dive into the history of electronic music with an astonishing array of synthesisers from the last half century to manipulate.
Thursday October 13 and Friday October 14, The Substation
The ethereal and iconic sounds of Lisa Gerrard have cut to the core of listeners around the globe, both as the voice of Dead Can Dance, and through her work in groundbreaking film scores created with legends like Hans Zimmer and Ennio Morricone. Melbourne Festival offers a rare performance from the revered vocalist in a career-spanning concert that will feature works from past and present including songs from her Dead Can Dance collaborations, films and long-reaching solo catalogue.
Wednesday October 19, Hamer Hall
Tanderrum is the meeting of the five clans of the Kulin Nation: Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Taungurung, Dja Dja Wurrung and Wadawurrung, and acts as Melbourne Festival’s invitation for you to join them on this land. This Tanderrum had not been practiced here in Melbourne since 1835, but in the past four years it has become an integral moment in the commencement of each year’s Festival. With sand, leaves and bark, a space is made, and it’s a space to be shared. Come dance.
Wednesday October 5, Federation Square
One of the most hotly anticipated theatrical events from this year’s program comes 887, an introspective piece from acclaimed theatremaker Rober Lepage. Written, directed, designed and performed by Lepage, the production sees him cast his eye onto the most difficult subject of all – himself. Making its Australian premiere, the play begins in his childhood home of 887 Avenue Murray in Quebec City and subsequently moves across decades in a tale that proves inseparable from the dramatic events of the half century in which it plays out.
Wednesday October 19 – Saturday October 22, Arts Centre Melbourne
