What’s on: Proms, portraits and Straight White drama

The weekend kicks off with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s rousing Last Night of the Proms, with other events including First Fridays at the Art Gallery, Zephyr Quartet’s Between Light and State Theatre’s Straight White Men.

Jun 20, 2016, updated Jul 04, 2016

The ASO will present Last Night of the Proms at the Festival Theatre.

ASO’s Last Night of the Proms – Festival Theatre

Conductor Guy Noble says audiences can expect “flag-waving fun and streamers” at the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Last Night of the Proms at the Festival Theatre. The performances, tonight and tomorrow (July 1 and 2), will feature baritone José Carbó, the Elder Conservatorium Chorale and Graduate Singers alongside the orchestra, as they perform British classics including Parry’s “Jerusalem”, Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance March No 1” and “Rule Britannia!”

Robert Hannaford exhibition – Art Gallery of SA

Fifty years of work by South Australian portrait artist Robert Hannaford is on show in this exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia, which continues until October 9. It includes many of Hannaford’s previously unseen portrait and figure drawings, alongside some of his more familiar paintings. The exhibition opening coincides with tonight’s after-hours First Fridays event at the gallery, which will include live music by SA quartet Miss Wonderful. Hannaford will also take part in a conversation with Philip Adams in the Radford Auditorium on Saturday morning. Read InDaily’s interview with the artist here.

Zephyr Quartet – Waterside Workers’ Hall

Zephyr Quartet’s Between Light. Photo: Heath Britton

After a sell-out premiere season of their project Between Light in 2014, the Zephyr Quartet is now presenting the work at Port Adelaide’s Waterside Workers’ Hall, with performances continuing until July 3. Presented in association with Vitalstatistix, Between Light comprises five works by Australian jazz artists presented in a promenade-style concert in which the audience moves with the ensemble into different spaces at the hall – each lit by lighting designer Geoff Cobham. Read our review here.

Straight White Men – Space Theatre

Described as “a provocative and hilarious faux-sit-com”, this new co-production by the State Theatre Company of SA and La Boite Theatre Company asks big questions about masculinity, success, sacrifice and cultural empowerment. Performances begin at the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre tonight and continue until July 23. Read InDaily’s story about the show here.

Australian String Quartet – Adelaide Town Hall

After touring interstate with its national season show Tempesta, the ASQ returns home to perform at the Adelaide Town Hall on July 7. The program includes Australian composer/pianist Joe Chindamo’s first string quartet (after which the concert is named), alongside works by Mendelssohn, Haydn and Weber. Details here.

Emily Wurramara – Nexus Arts

Emily-wurramara Saturday’s show at Nexus Arts presents three artists actively involved in Aboriginal language preservation and revival: singer and multi-instrumentalist Emily Wurramara (above), from Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory, Adelaide-based roots artist Corey Theatre, and SA singer-songwriter Vonda Last. The performance begins at 8pm.

Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize exhibition – SA Museum

At the South Australian Museum until July 31, the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize exhibition showcases the work of finalists in this year’s competition. The 2016 Open prize was won this year by taxidermy artist Julia deVille, with a sculpture seeking to provoke discussion about the use of factory-farmed eggs in food products, while Dan Power took out the Emerging Artist prize for a work featuring drawings of endangered flora and fauna on a bull’s skull.

Fleurieu Art Prize exhibition – Samstag Museum

The “richest landscape art prize in the world” has relocated this year from the Fleurieu Peninsula to the Samstag Museum of Art in the city, where the work of all 58 finalists is on display until July 29. This year’s prize was won by Indigenous artist Tony Albert with a wall installation made from vintage playing cards. The work of finalists in the Fleurieu Food + Wine Art Prize are currently being shown at wineries and other venues in McLaren Vale.

Doug Anthony Allstars – Her Majesty’s Theatre

The Doug Anthony Allstars – Paul McDermott, Tim Ferguson and long-time collaborator Paul “Flacco” Livingston – reunite to perform their new show Near Death Experience at Her Majesty’s Theatre on July 7 before heading to the Edinburgh Festival. The show is described as an “outrageous bombardment of death, sex, violence and pure evil”, with a mixture of filthy faux pas, spirited singing, and social commentary.

Noble Cause and Boiled Cabbage – Holden St Theatres

This double bill of one-act plays by Tony Moore is being presented until July 2 at Holden Street Theatres in Hindmarsh. Boiled Cabbage looks at the effects of World War II on the home front in Britain, while Noble Cause explores the issue of censorship in the modern world.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – Arts Theatre

Tennessee Williams’ famous exploration of love, lies and family relationships, set in the Mississippi plantation home of wealthy cotton tycoon, is playing at the Arts Theatre until July 2. It’s presented by Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Details here.