Extinct and endangered animals honoured in Biennale; SSO’s bold new move; War Horse review
Biennale of Sydney artist Lucienne Rickard does something to her drawings that makes people cry. Sydney Symphony Orchestra commissions the music of the future. And we review the stage play War Horse.
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REVIEW
War Horse, Sydney Lyric Theatre, until March 15
War Horse, the heartwrenching stage show about the impact of World War I on a farm boy and his loyal horse, still has the power to thrill.
The show had audiences sobbing when it debuted here in 2013, and it packed just as big an emotional punch on opening night of its return run at the Sydney Lyric this week.
War Horse is based on the book of the same name by best-selling British author Michael Morpurgo. Nick Stafford adapted the book to become a play, and the National Theatre of Great Britain produced it.
But the master stroke by the National Theatre was to collaborate with the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa. For it’s the magnificent horses, Joey and Topthorn, that turn War Horse into the uniquely stirring show that it is.
To call Joey and Topthorn “puppets” is to diminish their impact and authenticity. Puppets are usually small and their movements are often jerky and unrealistic. But the performers who manipulate these horses do a truly magical job of transforming a concoction of cane and leather into snorting, prancing creatures.
At least life-size, the horses make satisfying clomping noises as they trot, rear, canter and kick out. They are mesmerising to watch and hear.
The cast was led by Scott Miller as Albert Narracott, who is 16 at the beginning the play when his gruff, farmer dad (Colin Connor) upsets his wife (Jo Castleton) by spending the precious mortgage money on a foal — Joey.
Everyone in the show does their job well and it’s a beautiful piece of theatre that incorporates humour, pathos, lovely Celtic music, battlefield explosions and friendships forged in adversity. The ending saw tears trembling on many a cheek, in the same way that horse stories have done since Black Beauty and National Velvet. Horse lovers, don’t miss it.
BIENNALE OF SYDNEY
Extinction Studies, Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN, National Art School, corner of Forbes and Burton Streets, Darlinghurst, March 14-June 8, 10am-5pm daily, free, nas.edu.au
WHEN audiences come to watch Lucienne Rickard drawing pictures of vulnerable animals at the Biennale of Sydney, there’s one creature they won’t see on the artist’s large sheet of paper.
Yes, the population plight of the koala has worsened because of this season’s devastating bushfires. And, yes, critically endangered species will be Rickard’s focus during her residency at the Darlinghurst landmark.
But, ironically, the koala’s very popularity has ruled it out as the model for one of Rickard’s skilled and accurate pencil drawings that take up to 10 days to create.
“It’s probably for the same reason I haven’t drawn a Tasmanian devil (listed as endangered) — these iconic species suck up a lot of the attention, when there are so many that don’t provoke as much empathy but play crucial roles in ecosystems,” Rickard says.
When she sets up her drawing station in the bustling grounds of the National Art School, the Tasmanian artist will focus on drawing less emotive native animals such as the endangered bandicoot. She might even venture into life forms such as fungi.
Rickard’s project, Extinction Studies, will see her drawing at the NAS in Darlinghurst for the duration of the Biennale (March 14 to June 8). She plans to draw all day, whenever the school is open — and it will be open daily.
For the first time in about a decade, the school will be one of the Biennale’s principal venues along with regular sites such as the Art Gallery of NSW, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Cockatoo Island. It seems grimly appropriate that Extinction Studies will be at NAS, on the site of the former Darlinghurst Gaol where many unfortunates were hanged.
Rickard began work on Extinction Studies last September at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. Her partners in the project are Adrift Lab, which researches oceanic pollutants, and a not for profit charity called Detached Cultural Organisation.
Rickard has just finished drawing a Hawaiian tree snail that became extinct in 2019. The last snail was George, aged 14. “They never found a mate for him,” Rickard says.
While she focused exclusively on recently extinct species while working in Tasmania, in Sydney she will draw critically endangered species, hoping to draw attention to their needs.
“The bushfires definitely changed what I thought the project could do,” Rickard says. “I’ll try to pick species with a good story that I can speak to people about.”
Based on her Tasmanian experience, the project at NAS will be half drawing and half talking about art and wildlife conservation with curious visitors. Rickard will need only one (sturdy) piece of paper for her NAS residency because of her unusual working style for the Extinction Studies project. As soon as she finishes one of her large drawings, she erases it — leaving behind a ghostly remnant over which the next drawing is done. In this way, the paper will gradually wear down while still bearing the traces of overlapping marks.
Although Rickard documents her drawings on her Instagram page, many people who watched her work in Tasmania “teared up” while watching her erase what she had spent days drawing.
People expressed “panic and sadness”. Rickard hopes the emotion was for the recently extinct animals and not for the erasure of her drawing, which doesn’t overly bother her.
“I don’t particularly care about the drawing at all,” Rickard says. “But I feel sad because I’ve worked on them for perhaps 10 days and I’m constantly looking at the photo (of the animal). It might sound a little over dramatic but a relationship gets built up. By the time I’m ready to erase it I’m really sad, because the species is gone.”
SYDNEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
SSO commissions an amazing 50 new pieces of Australian music, sydneysymphony.com
Most people would find it hard enough to write classical music — without having to worry whether the trombonist can trapeze or the tenor can trampoline.
But this is just the sort of challenge enjoyed by Chloe Charody, 35, who will create a new piece of music to be performed by the magnificent Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Charody is one of an astonishing 50 Australian composers commissioned by the SSO to come up with what CEO Emma Dunch hopes will be the masterpieces of tomorrow. The initiative is called 50 Fanfares.
The full list of composers includes composers of all ages and stages, and about half are from NSW. Charody is from Castlecrag, although she is based between London and Berlin. Her penchant for combining circus skills with classical music has seen her writing and presenting new stage works around the world. Charody set up her own training academy in Berlin, where classical singers are taught to be proficient in circus skills.
“I follow all my productions around Europe and the world,” she says.
“When I was 22 my first circus opera debuted on London’s West End. It’s been touring ever since.”
Charody will this year bring her latest work, The Devil’s Tiger, to Australia.
“It’s a circus opera. I combine classical musicians and opera singers trained in circus with acrobats.”
Another of the Fanfare composers is Brenda Gifford, an indigenous musician who lives in Canberra and plans to bring didgeridoo and clapsticks into her SSO commission.
The first of the 50 new works to be performed will be by First Nation composer Christopher Sainsbury as part of the SSO’s A Global Ode To Joy at the Sydney Town Hall in August this year. A Global Ode To Joy will reimagine Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of leading conductor Marin Alsop.
Other Fanfare composers include Lyle Chan, Alice Chance, Holly Harrison, Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats-Chernin, Harry Sdraulig, Paul Stanhope, Joseph Tawadros and Jessica Wells.
The SSO plans to record and release all 50 commissions, and publish the orchestral scores for international orchestra use. The Fanfares will be performed in the Opera House Concert Hall when it reopens in 2022 after a two-year renovation which has just begun. In the meanwhile, the SSO will play at other venues including Sydney Town Hall.
Emma Dunch says Fanfare 50 is a major investment in Australian music. “It’s the largest commissioning project in Australian history,” Dunch says.