Forget Halloween tricks - November is all about artistic treats!
Two stunning immersive exhibitions add to the momentum of the UK/Australia Season, a brilliant Aussie play lands at the Finborough, ballerina extraordinaire Leanne Benjamin launches her autobiography and those giants of experiment and ambition at Samoan arts collective GAFA perform Wagner with pizzazz.
Welcome to a feast of experiences - plus another special offer for FANZA theatre fans.
Check out our new FANZA website. Keep up-to-date with all that's happening and help celebrate and support Antipodean artists.
Tracking the Seven Sisters, the National Museum of Australia's extraordinary immersive exhibition finally made its European première at The Box, Plymouth - to ecstatic reviews and special features in the The Times and Guardian - to name but two. It also spearheaded a BBC Inside Culture special with Professor Mary Beard exploring the whole cultural relationship (past and present) between Australia and the UK. The perfect set up for the UK/Australia Season.
The Sugar House - First Performance Outside Australia + Special Offer for FANZA Subscribers
October 26 - November 22
'A gift of theatre; an exploration of who we were, who we are and who we wish we could be.' Time Out, Sydney
After its hit run at the renowned Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney in 2018, The Sugar House by Alana Valentine now receives its first production outside Australia at the Finborough Theatre. Nominated for Best New Australian Work in the Sydney Theatre Awards, this deeply moving drama focuses on three generations of remarkable women, distilling the conflict of how we are raised against what we choose, and how the hope of social transformation sometimes means the irretrievable loss of what built us.
RinGafa - A Bold Reworking of Wagner's Entire Ring Cycle
October 30 - November 20
GAFA, the Samoan Arts Collective led by NZ-born Sani Muliausamaseali'i, is back in London with another ambitious opera project – an innovative staging of Wagner's entire Ring Cycle. Pacific history and mythology plus the classic Nordic saga of power, greed and love, is performed with pizzazz by an international cast of Wagnerian singers led by maestro Stephen Anthony Brown.
This stunning 360° VR experience uses cutting edge technology to connect you with the Yawanawá, an Amazonian people who are ascending from the edge of extinction. An immersive and intimate experience (for just six people at a time), it's already Emmy award-winning, so book early to avoid disappointment (as they say!) and head on down to London's Barbican.
Talbot Rice Gallery presents the first major exhibition in the UK of Angelica Mesiti, one of the leading Australian artists of her generation.
A dynamic journey through historical painting, musical notation, geological specimens and musical instruments using sound, performance and video to reflect the struggle of communities to co-exist. Three key installations Over the Air and Underground (2020), ASSEMBLY (2019) and Citizens Band (2012) anchor the exhibition offering windows onto different elements of Mesiti’s practice: from the communication of trees and the vision of bees; to the occupation and performance of resistance in the halls of democracy; to the migration of people, customs and music.
Built for Ballet the extraordinary life and career of one of the world’s most successful ballet dancers, former principal dancer at The Royal Ballet, arrives in style. Written with the help of Sarah Crompton, the book not only reveals what it really takes to become a ballet dancer, but explores how ballet has changed and continues to do so.
Leanne, who was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, wants her book to inspire people to be themselves. "You don’t have to act like a ballerina to be a ballerina. Just be yourself," she says.
Get tickets for Festive Firebird - A Tribute to Ballet, November 24. Royal Opera House music lecturer Ross Alley will review Leanne's book, celebrated pianist Piers Lane will perform, portrait painter June Mendoza will be in conversation - a stellar night.
Three Sisters, the final book in Heather Morris's phenomenal series that began with The Tattooist of Auschwitz is now out. A deeply moving story of hope and of finding love after loss.
NZ actor (and FANZA Arts Patron) Sam Neill lights up screens as Sheriff John Bell Tyson in new Apple TV+ series Invasion
Sleuthing, Hoarding & Heartbreak - FANZA's inaugural podcast from the Diving In team is still available. New episode coming December.
Save the date: 17 December
The Australian Chamber Orchestra have just announced a pop-up concert at the Barbican, London. Full details to be unveiled.
Have you visited FANZA's new look website yet? We've been hard at work, making it easier for you to keep up to date with Antipodean art and events. Take a peek!
