Our top picks for Melbourne Festival

Here are our top picks for what to see at the Melbourne Festival this year!


Bronte Coates is intrigued by Marzo.

My normal response to people in masks is a straight-up nope! But Marzo has managed to draw me in somehow. Co-created by Dewey Dell (an Italian artists’ collective), Yuichi Yokoyama (a manga artist) and Kuro Tanino (the Artistic Director of Japanese theatre company Niwagekidan Penino), this is ‘an impeccably stylized dance work with a stunning visual aesthetic – eccentric and fantastical’. Dewey Dell have a reputation for putting on visionary and experimental shows and this one looks to be more of the same, featuring comic book-inspired characters dressed in vivid costumes.

Another production I’m hoping to see this year is Complexity of Belonging which is described as ‘a darkly humorous exploration of identity in the age of social media’. This show is a mash-up of theatre and dance from long-time collaborators Anouk van Dijk and Falk Richter and one of the festival’s highlights.


Emily Harms says to bring it on!

I absolutely love Melbourne Festival time. Spring is in the air and Melbourne comes alive!

I can’t wait to see the World Premiere, Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday at the Malthouse Theatre, the playful new work from Malthouse Theatre’s 2013 female director-in-residence, Roslyn Oades. Based on interviews with people aged eighteen and eighty – two ages that bookend a life – it’s a celebration of two significant birthdays. I’m equally intrigued to hear both their takes on life.

I also want to see Pop Crimes in the Festival Hub. This show brings together original members of The Birthday Party, Crimes & the City Solution and These Immortal Souls, as well as other collaborators from Rowland S. Howard’s musical career spanning thirty years. Howard, arguably one of the best guitarists of Australia, used to live in my street in St Kilda and we always felt quite honoured to have such a fine muso in our midst. His life came to a tragic end in 2009 and Pop Crimes will be showcased on what would have been his fifty-fifth birthday. Featuring Adalita, Mick Harvey, Ed Kuepper and many more, this night will no doubt be one to remember.

I’m also set to attend another night of music in the Foxtel Festival Hub with Since I left you – a celebration of the Avalanches. This iconic music work of summer 2000 (one that brings back many fond memories for me) has always been believed to be impossible to perform live given it’s built on over 3500 distinct samples. At this performance, Sydney’s Astral People are taking on the challenge to bring the album to life by producing a euphoric tribute to this Australian classic, together with electro-pop wonder-kid Jonti and a seventeen-person orchestra.

Usually Melbourne Festival marks my time to indulge in a cultural feast but this time my kids are going to get involved as well. They are going to love Art as a Verb – a free event at Monash University Museum of Art which explores the idea of art as a participatory medium They will also love Pepper the Monkey and the Rainbow Circus at the Melbourne Recital Centre, from the Principal players of Aurora Orchestra. It’s a blend of stories, theatre and classical music set to new chamber arrangements of Robert Schumann’s famous children’s compositions (such as Albumblatter, Carnival and Album for the Young). We’re also going to PRIMO at Artplay, Birrarung Marr. Set in a brightly lit, clear-sided pool, this show promises to be an underwater spectacular for kids.


Chris Gordon is impressed by the array of astonishing free events on offer.

This year I am committed to attending every free event, installation and talk that the Melbourne Festival offers.

Well, actually, that will be impossible given that I work and that I have a partner, children, dogs – oh the list goes on. But I will be at Federation Square with said list (sans dogs) for the Opening Festival on Friday 10 October at 7pm.

I’m also keen to lay my eyes on the Golden Mirror Carousel by Carsten Holler at the NGV International because that immediately lights my fire. And, while I’m romancing all things circus, I’ll drop by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art to catch a performance of the Framed Movements exhibition, which looks super cool ad represents artists from Poland, Denmark, Australia and more. To finish my trawl through the city, I’ll hop on a decorated tram and head to the State Library of Victoria where an installation by Linda Tegg will transform the steel grey foreground of the library into swishing grasslands of yesteryears with Grasslands.

All this my friends for the cost of time. It’s simply too good.


Browse the full program and book tickets on the Melbourne Festival website. Readings is a proud sponsor of the Melbourne Festival.

Cover image for Since I Left You

Since I Left You

Avalanches

This item is unavailableUnavailable