What’s on in South Australia

Oct 26, 2014, updated Oct 22, 2015

Eurogliders are playing at Day on the Green - Classic Hits.

This weekend’s entertainment ranges from a retro music trip in the Barossa to writer Lally Katz’s one-woman show about her psychic odyssey in New York.

Other events include the Iranian Film Festival at the Mercury Cinema, Gawler Jazz Festival, Opera SA’s Otello, and Maori reggae band Katchafire playing at The Gov.

Day on the Green – Classic Hits

The Saturday’s Day on the Green at Peter Lehmann Wines at Tanunda promises a trip down memory lane with “Australian music that defined the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s”. The line-up comprises Moving Pictures, John Paul Young, 1927, Eurogliders, Rose Tattoo, Choirboys’ Mark Gable, Swanee, Wendy Matthews, Wa Wa Nee, Dragon’s Mark Williams, Mi-Sex, Machinations, Pseudo Echo and GANGgajang. Gates open at 3.30pm with performances continuing through until around 9.40pm, and there were still tickets available last we looked.

Kryptonite – State Theatre

Playwright Sue Smith (The Kreutzer Sonata, Mabo, Brides of Christ) tackles the issue of Australia’s often conflicted relationship with China in this new play at the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre. A co-production between the State Theatre Company of SA and Sydney Theatre Company, Kryptonite is a two-hander featuring mesmerising performances by actors Ursula Mills and Tim Walter (see InDaily review). The pair play carefree Australian student Dylan and Chinese exchange student Lian, who meet at a Sydney university and develop a long-lasting friendship even though their careers take them in very different directions when he becomes a left-wing politician and she becomes a mining executive in China. It is playing at the Space Theatre until November 9.

Gawler Jazz Festival

This year’s jazz festival begins on Saturday with the Rotary Village Fair at Pioneer Park, accompanied by the Dixieland sounds of the Adelaide City Jazzmen. A new event added to the program is Jazz for Breakfast, which will see musicians performing at cafes around town from 9am until midday. The festival runs across both Saturday and Sunday, with acts including Atlantic Street Band, Soul’D, Various Nefarious and Dukes of Jump. The full program is online.

Lally Katz – Stories I Want to Tell You in Person

Writer Lally Katz is both the subject and performer in this show inspired by her two-year obsession with New York fortune tellers. The irrepressible Katz (who also wrote the play Neighbourhood Watch, presented earlier this year with Miriam Margolyes) says Stories I Want to Tell You in Person is essentially about one woman’s quest to have it all, touching on various aspects of her life but with a particular focus on the charismatic psychics with whom she became infatuated. Described by one reviewer as “wildly, fall-about funny”, the show is being presented at Bakehouse Theatre until November 8. You can read InDaily’s interview with Katz here.

Iranian Film Festival

Iranian film The Paternal House.

I’m Not Angry, a feature film described as a tragic love story set against the political and social constraints of the Green Movement, will open the Iranian Film Festival tonight at the Mercury Cinema. There will also be a free “live-in-conversation” session with the film’s star, Baran Kosari at 2.30pm on Saturday. The festival runs for only three days (until November 2), with the screening of nine feature films and five short films – including two youth-focussed films, several dealing with family issues and a “single-take horror film with no violence”. Festival co-director Anne Démy-Geroe says the program reflects a sense of enthusiasm in the Iranian film industry since the election of a new government in 2013. “Where last year the program featured masters and veterans, this year the emphasis is on young cinema with many first and second-time directors.” The program is online.

Sit Down, Shutup and Watch

This inaugural learning-disability-led film festival, a project of Tutti Arts, will see the screening of more than 40 films over a number of sessions today and tonight (Friday) at Angaston Town Hall in the Barossa Valley. The films traverse a mix of genres, including comedy, drama, animation, horror and romance, all made by filmmakers with a learning disability.

Alber Elbaz for Lanvin, long evening dress, Spring-Summer 2008, Les Arts Décoratifs, Mode et Textile collection, in association with Lanvin, 2011. Photo: Thierry Dreyfus

Fashion Icons

This Art Gallery of South Australia spring-summer exhibition showcases glamorous Parisian fashion. Fashion Icons comprises some 90 haute couture garments from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, including designs from the late 1940s to the 21^st century by the likes of Christian Dior, Gabrielle Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent. It seeks to provide a link between these high-end garments and contemporary fashion, with more than 50 associated events, including workshops, films, lunchtime talks and panel discussions. Fashion Icons: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris will run until February 15, 2015.

Otello

Verdi’s tragic tale of love, jealousy and betrayal will have its final performance at the Adelaide Festival Theatre on November 1. The State Opera of SA co-production is set on an aircraft carrier, which lends itself well to the secret liaisons and trysts inherent in the 1887 tale. The performance features the State Opera Chorus and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and a cast of world-class Australian opera singers. Read InDaily’s review here.

Roller Derby Grand Final

Campbelltown’s Murder City Roller Girls will hold their last bout of the year on Saturday evening, with undefeated Valkyrie Storm facing off against crowd favourites the Dames of Hazard. Doors open at 7pm at Campbelltown Leisure Centre, and more information can be found on the Murder City Roller Girls Facebook page.

Katchafire at The Gov

Maori reggae band Katchafire will be bringing their “classic roots reggae with an R ’n’ B and funk dub” sound to The Gov this Sunday. It’s the fourth show on an extensive Australian tour itinerary for the Kiwi seven-piece which recently released a new single, “Down With You”, recorded in Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica. Doors open for the gig at 7.30pm.

The Breakfast Club

This classic 1980s, Brat Pack era film has been adapted by Adelaide producer/director Matt Byrne for a stage show at Holden Street Theatres. In case you’re too young to remember the John Hughes film, it follows five high school students from vastly different social groups who are forced to spend a day together in detention and end up finding their perceptions challenged and horizons broadened. And the stage play is as good as, if not better than, the film, according to our reviewer. The Breakfast Club is playing at Holden Street Theatres until November 8.

Our Mob

The Adelaide Festival Centre’s annual exhibition of Indigenous art features more than 140 artworks by 114 different artists from throughout South Australia ranging in age from just seven to over 80. They include a political take on Edvard Munch’s The Scream, a young boy’s impression of the fallout from nuclear testing at Maralinga and a detailed ink on paper work inspired by the beauty of nature. Our Mob, showing in the centre’s Artspace Gallery and Festival Theatre foyer until December 7, also features a special contemporary art exhibition and a showcase of work by young Indigenous artists.

Luminous World

Samstag Museum of Art’s new exhibition highlights the role light plays in creating and revealing the world around us. The paintings, objects and photographers are from the Wesfarmers Collection and showcase the work of 50 Australian and New Zealand artists, including Bill Henson, Susan Norrie, Fiona Pardington and Nyapanyapa Yunupingu. Luminous World is accompanied by Luminous Cinema, a program of film and moving image works by artists such as Lynette Wallworth. Both exhibitions run until December 5. More information here.

Nature Photographer of the Year

A stunning collection of wildlife and landscape photographs is on display at the South Australian Museum from this weekend. The images were all finalists in the 2014 Australian Geographic ANZANG Nature Photographer of the Year competition. They were captured in Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea, with subjects ranging from tiny invertebrates and birds to large marine animals and landscapes. “The exhibition continues until November 28. Caption: Flash of Light, Alan Kwok (NSW), Animal Portrait finalist.