How cancelled festival led to creation of incredible dress

The Brisbane Writers Festival CEO has dazzled at the launch of this year’s event, with an amazing outfit created in tribute to last year’s cancelled event.

Start as you mean to go on they say and this year’s Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) recently did that with a glittering evening. The festival’s Marion Taylor Opening Night Gala on May 7 was a doozy.

Glittering is the operative word too because it was held in the Queensland Art Gallery with the most amazing backdrop - Ai Weiwei’s extraordinary giant chandelier Boomerang.

It was quite a guest list too which included former Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson, art dealer Philip Bacon, renowned poet and academic Sarah Holland-Batt, arts Minister Leeanne Enoch and, perhaps the most popular guest on the night, Federal Member for Brisbane Trevor Evans who chose the evening to announced that the Feds were kicking in $198,000 to help the festival as it plans its 60th year celebrations in 2022. He’ll be invited back next year for sure.

Brisbane Writers Festival chair Fiona Taylor, with CEO Sarah Runcie - in her dress made from last year’s tote bags - and Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch at the Marion Taylor Opening Night Gala at the Queensland Art Gallery.

Brisbane Writers Festival CEO Sarah Runcie stole a bit of the limelight on the night with her ball gown made out of old Brisbane Writers Festival tote bags left over from last year’s cancelled event.

“We couldn’t use them last year and it seemed ridiculous to waste them,” Runcie says. Fortitude Valley designer Alice Nightingale made the dress for her.

Runcie’s “hybrid” festival was a great success and though some guests couldn’t make it opening night speaker Robert Dessaix was here from Tassie and there were plenty of other literary stars on hand including our own Kate Morton.

Moving the festival from September to May worked and Runcie, who is from Sydney, seems to have settled in nicely. She is now busily starting to work on next year and we can’t wait to see what she programs ...and wears.

Meanwhile some of this year’s Brisbane Festival events can still be viewed online until the end of the month at bwf.org.au

CHAMBER COMEBACK

This year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music (AFCM) which is on in Townsville in late July will open in a very appropriate way for its comeback event after the pandemic. AFCM (July 23 to August 1) has commissioned Yorta Yorta soprano, composer and educator, Deborah Cheetham, to create a work in celebration of the event’s 30th anniversary.

Deborah Cheetham.

She will perform that work with a powerful world premiere at the Townsville Civic Theatre on opening night. Created to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which the festival takes place, the Wulgurukaba people of Gurumbilbara, it is entitled Nginda Ngarrini Bi Ngya (which translates as “you have arrived”) and will be sung in the Wulgurukaba language. It will be performed by Cheetham and baritone David Greco and the AFCM quartet-in-residence, the acclaimed Goldner String Quartet.

afcm.com.au

WHY DARCY IS DOWN WITH HIS INNER PIG

Call actor Darcy Brown a pig and he won’t mind a bit. In fact he will probably squeal with delight.

He’s been doing a lot of squealing lately, since he plays a pig called Squealer in local outfit shake & stir theatre co’s rebooting of one of its most popular works, Animal Farm, based on George Orwell’s classic political allegorical novella of the same name which is set in a farmyard.

Shake & stir theatre co is one of Queensland’s great theatrical success stories and they do amazing work and tour relentlessly. This show, which comes to QPAC next month, is on the road at the moment and will be going all over the country touring to 30 theatres between now and November 19.

Darcy Brown in Animal Farm.

When I chat to Brown he’s getting ready for a show in Orange, New South Wales and is getting his piggy makeup on.

“I do quite a bit of squealing and pig screeching on stage,” Brown says. “The play is very playful and funny but also quite dark. The story is one of a rebellion of animals. They kick out the farmer but the rebellion is betrayed by a group of self-righteous pigs. Squealer is the farm’s minister of propaganda.”

Brown, 30, is from Melbourne and recently came to Brisbane to join shake & stir.

“It’s an extraordinary company and I have become more and more aware of what they do and I’m happy to be working with them,” he says.

Co-artistic director Ross Balbuziente (Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij are the others) says the company is grateful to be on the road again reconnecting with regional venues after last year’s cancellations.

“Touring is part of the culture in our company,” Balbuziente says. “We have a passion for doing it.’’

Balbuziente says Animal Farm, which George Orwell used as an allegory to explore the politics of the Soviet Union, still resonates.

“It’s relevant more than ever and that’s shocking,” he says.

Animal Farm comes to the Empire Theatre, Toowoomba on June 4 and the Cremorne Theatre QPAC June 7 to 26 .

qpac.com.au

COMPASSION ON SHOW

Fwd: Story Op: ARIA-award-winning singer/songwriter Lior takes the stage in Camerata's first live mainstage production in more than a year

When indie singer songwriter Lior Attar and Cameratatake to the stage next week it will be special in more ways than one. Covid-19 killed their last attempt at collaboration but now things are back to a new kind of normal and there are two Camerata concerts next week – Toowoomba at the Heritage Bank Auditorium, Empire Theatres on June 3 and QPAC’s Concert Hall on June 5.

This will be Camerata’s first live main stage production in more than a year. Lior, best known by just his Christian name, will join Queensland’s own chamber orchestra to perform his work Compassion, also the name of these concerts. Compassion is a song cycle Lior wrote with composer Nigel Westlake and the words reach out across the religious divide between Islam and Judaism. The Israeli-born composer’s piece was never more timely than right now.

CELEBRATING FAILURE

Jerry Seinfeld called it “the sweet stench of failure” and that’s what some of Brisbane’s arts identities focused on for one of Brisbane Art Design’s most unusual events on Friday night. BAD, which happens every two years and is organised by the Museum of Brisbane, held an event entitled Stories of Failures at United Arts Projects Northgate factory warehouse. UAP co-founder Daniel Tobin told how the business nearly went under and got a bit teary as he did so. Failures were referred to as “F--k Ups” on the evening (kids were told to cover their ears) and everyone had a few including artist Keith Burt, winner of the Brisbane Portrait Prize, who told a very funny story about miserably failing as a cricket scorer at school.

Alison Kubler with her artist husband Michael Zavros

Gail Sorronda talked of fashion failures, while arts writer and curator Alison Kubler spoke about her failure curating a major exhibition for a very ungrateful artist from hell. What a hoot.