Sunday Arts Magazine

Critically acclaimed hit musical Girl From the North Country arrives at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre on 29 April

International hit musical Girl from the North Country, by Conor McPherson, with music and lyrics by Bob Dylan, comes to Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre from 29 April, after attracting rave reviews in Sydney and Adelaide.

This modern masterpiece features an extraordinary cast including Lisa McCune, Chemon Theys, Peter Kowitz and Helpmann Award winners Helen Dallimore, Greg Stone, Christina O’Neill and Peter Carroll, alongside Terence Crawford, Grant Piro, Elizabeth Hay, Blake Erickson and James Smith.

The exceptional ensemble features Tony Black, Samantha Morley, Tony Cogin, Laurence Coy, Grace Driscoll and Liam Wigney, with the live on stage band, The Guilty Undertakers consisting of Cam (CJ Stranger) Henderson on acoustic and slide guitar, Xani Kolac on violin and mandolin, Mark Harris on double bass and Musical Director, Andrew Ross.

“a touch of magic…McCune is exceptional” – The Guardian

“A ravishing production! Bob Dylan’s songs have never sounded so heartbreakingly personal and universal. As close as mortals come to heaven on earth.” – New York Times

“[Lisa McCune] A towering performance” – Sydney Morning Herald

Set in 1934 Minnesota, it centers on a community living on a knife-edge in the local guesthouse, and features over 20 of Dylan’s songs from across his career – from 1963’s Girl From the North Country to 2012’s Duquesne Whistle plus Hurricane, I Want You, Slow Train Coming, You Ain’t Going Nowhere and Like A Rolling Stone – all beautifully reimagined and woven through the story.

In an interview with the New York Times, Bob Dylan confirmed that he has seen the new musical The Girl from the North Country: “I saw it as an anonymous spectator, not as someone who had anything to do with it,” Dylan told the Times. “I just let it happen. The play had me crying at the end. I can’t even say why. When the curtain came down, I was stunned. I really was.”

Two shows only, the Mother’s Day Concert will be presented both as a 2pm matinee and an 5pm concert at Melbourne’s spectacular Hamer Hall.

“This will be a very special concert. The first time I met Patti was just over 30 years ago, when she was singing at a concert with Bert. She was fabulous, and I can’t wait to hear her voice with the 60-piece orchestra,” said John Foreman.

“David is a magnificent performer and an Aussie Pops Orchestra favourite. Harrison is a newer member of the APO family, and our audiences have loved his performances over the last few years,” he added.

Patti Newton said “I’ve been performing for as long as I can remember – it’s something I just love to do. It will be emotional for me, being back on stage, and I know it’d be just wonderful to see all of those beautiful, smiling faces in the audience. As well as being a celebration of mums on Mother’s Day, I’ll also be performing a special tribute to Bert. He always included me in everything, so it seems fitting that we include a tribute to him at the concert. I’m very much looking forward to working with David, Harrison, John and the 60-piece orchestra.”

Australian showbiz legend Patti Newton is one of Australia’s most loved performers with a career spanning over 50 years. Patti began her long and successful career at the age of four including stints with Ch 7, radio and Ch 9’s In Melbourne Tonight. She also appeared regularly with Bert Newton on Good Morning Australia. More recently, she has appeared on Ch 7’s Dancing With The Stars and Ch 9’s Celebrity Apprentice.

For over 40 years, the Aussie Pops Orchestra has presented a unique blend of popular classical and contemporary music to Australian audiences. They have performed alongside many of the world’s favourite singers including Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Peter Allen, Andrea Bocelli, Dame Joan Sutherland, Sir Cliff Richard, Ray Charles and many more. During the pandemic, the Aussie Pops moved online, with virtual performances attracting hundreds of thousands of views in Australia and around the world; but the musicians are particularly enjoying to returning to the concert platform.

 

Under the radar: Male homosexual lives in post-Second World War Australia

 

Oral and written history in Australia has been recorded mainly from a heteronormative perspective and has largely ignored the lived experience of LGBTI people. Yet, it is in examining the lives of ‘the other’ that society can fully understand its own breadth of experience and practice and learn to reassess its past in order to inform its future. By researching the lives of homosexual men from 1946 to 1959 the study aimed to make a contribution to understanding a significant but largely unknown part of Australian history. It examined how homosexual men survived the challenges they faced and how they accommodated their homosexual desire. Data was gathered through interviews with 27homosexual men who were at least 16 years old in 1946. It used narrative analysis of life stories to construct a picture of what life was like for the participants and sought to understand how they‘ made sense’ of their lives at the time, the impact institutions had on those lives, and how they survived an era that was hostile to homosexuals. A sense of urgency informed the research because it was a pathway to knowledge and insight about Australian history that if not recorded would soon be lost forever due to the advanced ages of those who lived through this period. (Since the research was undertaken a number of the interviewees have sadly passed away).

Simon Lamb – Managing Director of Black Lamb Movies talks to the Sunday Arts Magazine

Stacey talks about the upcoming performances of La Traviata in Melbourne.

Dressed for success, GlamourPussy’s mission is to spread the

good word as she sings of the joys of post-menopause: when a

girl finally gets her body, her mind and her life back after the lost

years in hormone hell.

GlamourPussy & The Hip Replacements present a joyful

cabaret of songs and humour celebrating the best years of life.

GlamourPussy & The Hip Replacements perform at Chapel Off Chapel in Prahran on Saturday 30 April.

“GlamourPussy came about because I found myself at a ‘certain age’ – post menopause and feeling fabulous-

but all the messages were “you’re done, love,” but I felt far from it. Actually, I felt better than I had for as long as I

could remember,” said creator Naomi Eyers.

“Then something glorious started to happen. The less “visible” I was to the outside world, the more ‘visible’ I

became to myself, and others like me. This spark came from within, and not from being reflected and affirmed

externally. It was like I stepped through the mirror to the real world: The world of GlamourPussy.”

GlamourPussy is the queen of post-menopausal zest, a blue-rinse princess and she’s on her final run,

her last hoorah and she’s embracing it. GlamourPussy is an invitation to embrace your radiance no matter

what age you are. She flirts, she sings, she is joyous and calls others to join her. She doesn’t need anyone to tell

her she is sassy and gorgeous, she knows it – and she knows you are too!

Agent Bodies considers new propositions of what a body is, what it has been, and, perhaps most importantly, what it could be.  This exhibition interrogates how human bodies, other bodies, and the space between bodies are contextualised and understood today.    

The artists in the exhibition share an interest in examining the various freedoms and constraints enacted upon bodies.   

Exhibition Curators: Mikala Dwyer and Drew Pettifer.

The exhibition includes works that question the performance of identity, bodies in motion, and various states of bodily integrity – birth, sex, and death. Working across a diverse range of media, the artworks in Agent Bodies share an interest in interrogating the various freedoms and constraints enacted upon bodies.

Many of the artists included in the exhibition recognise bodies as fluid, hybrid, permeable, and ambiguous. They explore how bodies dictate the shape of time and space, but also how the shape of time and space can influence bodies. They reflect where the body is, where it isn’t, and the various states in between. In this way, there is an affinity with radical forms of queerness, intersubjectivity, and intersectionality.

“Agent Bodies was initially formed from a personal perception that although we have incredible contemporary artists interrogating bodies – and I mean ‘bodies’ in the most expansive ways – there had been a lack of curated projects critically reflecting on how our understandings of bodies have shifted. It was through a series of critical conversations with Mikala Dwyer that this grew into a curatorial project that gives a diverse range of incredible artists a platform to offer their own thoughts and frameworks for understanding bodies today.”

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with some exceptional artists on this project, but the chance to engage with a creative mind like Mikala in co-curating this exhibition has been eye-opening. Her own practice has engaged with the body in radical and thought-provoking ways, and she has a way of effortlessly cutting through to the essence of things; she understands artists and creative practice in such a visceral way.’’ Co-curator Drew Pettifer 

Driftwood – The Musical is a theatrical adaptation of Eva de Jong-Duldig’s critically acclaimed memoir, which tells the inspirational story of the renowned Austrian/Australian sculptor Karl Duldig and his artist/inventor wife, Slawa Horowitz-Duldig. The story takes in their romantic and artistic lives in pre-war Vienna and Slawa’s ingenious invention of the foldable umbrella. It follows the couple as they rebuild their lives as artists in Melbourne, but tragically almost all their relatives have died in the Holocaust.

Driftwood is a story of art and creativity, survival and perseverance, family and love. This is a piece of theatre about the resilience found through creativity and in the face of adversity. It is a story of survival and the endurance of the human spirit. It is also about displacement and finding solace and strength in family, art and community. While it is the story of the love between Karl and Slawa, two Viennese artists, it is also the story of one woman’s ingenuity, invention and adaptability.

Driftwood captures the universal narrative of seeking safety for yourself and your family, the lingering effects of intergenerational trauma and inspiringly shares the contribution one family has made to the nation.

The plight of refugees during wartime and the themes of loss, escape, migration, internment and resettlement remain relevant in modern Australia. They are dramatically illustrated through this uplifting true story of survival and add to its universal appeal. The themes also mirror today’s growing global dislocation, division, uncertainty and isolation, increased surveillance, fear, lockdowns, and closed borders, as well as the loss of community and connection that threatens our social fabric and, ultimately, our humanity.

The title reflects the transitory nature of ‘driftwood’, which drifts to a temporary resting place only to be picked up by the next wave and taken on a further unknown journey. This epic story crosses continents and tells a significant story of art and artists through history. Dark and tragic in parts, it is nevertheless embodied with a fierce element of hope, intelligence, tenacity and survival. Driftwood is more than a memoir. It is an inspiration. Eva weaves her remarkable story of escaping the Holocaust and overcoming its ghosts to find the key to freedom.

Stephen is back talking to the Sunday Arts Magazine team.