EVENING ARTISTIC PROGRAM

ATF 2013 was part of the Centenary of Canberra and each evening delegates were free to make their way to a show or reading of their choosing before meeting up again for late night drinks. Discounts were secured for ATF delegates.

A reading of Hannie Rayson’s EXTINCTION

8.00pm, Courtyard CTC, Wed, FREE

“No one in this play is wicked. No one is entirely virtuous. What unites them all is the one urgent question, in the age of global warming, how are we to live?”

Extinction is set in Cape Otway on the windswept coast of southern Australia. One wild winter night, Harry Jewell is driving along the Great Ocean Road, when he hits an endangered tiger quoll. One week later he shows up at the Centre for Conservation and Public Education (the CAPE Institute) and slaps two million dollars on the table to fund a biodiversity research project. But there is a complication. Harry is the Managing Director of Powerhouse Mining. He has a license to explore the Otways for brown coal. The second complication is that Harry is adorable  and recently divorced and for the women ecologists getting into bed with Big Coal, becomes more personal.

After the 2010 Tipping Point forum in Melbourne, Hannie Rayson was inspired to write a new play dealing with climate change. The play was commissioned by the Manhattan Theatre Club in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and had its premiere reading in New York in 2012. Directed by Hannie Rayson and Ian Pidd. Performed by Tom Gutteridge, Tim Stitz, Rachael Maza and Petra Kalive. RSVPs compulsory.

version 1.0’s THE MAJOR MINOR PARTY

8.00pm, Playhouse CTC, Wed/Thu/Fri (90mins no interval)

As we hurtled toward the next Federal election, version 1.0 explored the realm of the minor parties in Australia. What is important to us today, and who really represents us in the political world? Using the Australian Sex Party as a launching pad, version 1.0 asks the question – who is in charge of my body? Marriage equality, voluntary euthanasia, abortion, censorship, sex education and the separation of church and state are put under the theatrical microscope.

A Res Tickets $53 ($10 off) with promotion code ATF/APACA.

a is for atlas’s CHERRY, CHERRY (A DINING ROOM TALE)

7.30PM, a house in Dickson, THU (2h30m approx, INCL dinner)

In the dining room, stories pass through communion as plates around a table, carried on the heightened breath of a storyteller, and on the aromas which so fire the tastebuds. Born in Iran to a Persian father and Mauritian mother, Neda Rahmani is multi-talented Australian artist. Delegates were invited to join her at the table for a unique tale of generosity and loss, of adventure, art, and the making of home. An intimate meal, home-cooked in a kitchen of song, drums, dance and storytelling. A performance experience like no other, share a meal with Neda. Places extremely limited.

Shortis and Simpson’s PRIME TIME

8.00pm, The Q, Queanbeyan, Wed/Thu/Fri (2h10m incl interval)

Australia’s Prime Ministers are a fascinating bunch. We’ve had Mandarin and Latin speakers, spiritualists, atheists, republicans, monarchists, graziers and bodgies. They’ve given us an array of eyebrows, hairdo’s, pipes and spectacles, and between them they’ve had the unenviable task of leading our country through eleven turbulent decades. Those 27 PMs, and their times, are the heart of Prime Time, an original musical / theatrical production. Funny, moving, informative, entertaining – Prime Ministers at their best and worst.

Tickets for $22 ($17 off): ring box office to book on 6285 6290.

BOHO Interactive’s WORD PLAY

7.30pm, CSIRO Discovery Centre, Wed/Thu/Fri (75mins no interval)

Something is wrong. In the last two years, a new disease has emerged that is transmitted not by water, by air, by contact – but by speech. Language. Via text messaging and email, telephone or video. This disease attacks thought itself, undermining our ability to think critically and resist other people’s influence. This is an epidemic of harmful ideas and broken logic. And it’s spreading. So runs the scenario Canberra theatre ensemble Boho developed for their new immersive theatre experience. Using text messages and a purpose-built phone app, the audience is able to interact directly with the performers, and controlling them through a series of live computer game sequences. Bring your phone!

Tickets $15 ($5 off): book here and enter the promotion code ATF.

MAX CULLEN’S HOW TO BE (OR NOT TO BE) LOWER

7.30pm, The Street Theatre, Wed/Thu/Fri (70mins no interval)

Max Cullen’s one man show threw the spotlight on the turbulent, crazy, rich and poor surreal life of writer Lennie Lower, once regarded as “Australia’s Greatest Humourist”. Lower went to work as a journalist for Frank Packer in 1930, the depression years, with instructions to “Make ‘em Laugh”; and he did. His military experiences, his relationship with his wife, his bookmaker, his mates and the boss‘s secretary were all fodder for his humour. His dealings with the boss were legend, culminating with a demand from Packer that he apologise for calling an English actor a Queen. When Lenny refused he was sacked – for the 19th time.

Tickets for $30 ($5 off): ring box office to book on 6247 1223.

Liz Lea’s INFLIGHT

7.00pm, National Library of Australia, Fri/Sat (90 mins incl interval)

InFlight was a celebration of Australian aviation – man, woman and bird take to the skies. Liz Lea & Co presented an evening of dance with four of Australia leading contemporary dancers with archival film and sound from the National Film and Sound Archive and National the Library of Australia. The work celebrated the legacy of Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm. The premiere on the 31st May marked the 85th anniversary in Canberra’s Centenary Year, to the day, that Kingsford Smith and Ulm took off from California on the beginning of the their record breaking Trans Pacific flight.

Tickets $10 ($20 off with promotion code ATFCONF).