Planet Talks

A Voice to Parliament session featuring Uluru Dialogue committee members Patricia Anderson and Megan Davis is one of the highlights of WOMADelaide’s 2023 Planet Talks program announced today.

APY Executive board council chair Sally Scales will also join the conversation, which will be hosted by ABC journalist Dan Bourchier and explore the issue of enshrining a First Nations Voice to Parliament in Australia’s Constitution ahead of a planned national referendum.

Held over three days as part of the March 10-13 WOMADelaide Festival in Botanic Park, Planet Talks will also feature a live episode of political journalists Fran Kelly and Patricia Karvelas’ The Party Room podcast, and a discussion with tech entrepreneur and zero-emissions advocate Eytan Lenko looking at how Australia might reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Other sessions in the line-up will explore “crimes against nature” (such as illegal logging and the smuggling of animals and plants), the opportunities offered by seaweed harvesting, what would happen if human rights were extended to the natural world.

“The Planet Talks provide a platform for important conversation and discussion around current issues of environmental and social concern, which as a society we need to openly discuss,” says WOMADelaide director Ian Scobie.

The full 2023 WOMADelaide artist line-up has been announced previously, and includes headliners Youssou N’Dour, The Proclaimers, Sampa the Great, Bon Iver, Florence + The Machine, and the feather-fuelled aerial show Place des Anges (read more WOMAD stories here).

Around the world at DreamBIG

Northern Ireland play Removed is coming to DreamBIG. Photo: Hi Jump Design

Adelaide Festival Centre has launched the program for this year’s DreamBIG Children’s Festival, with more than 50 events ranging acclaimed international theatre shows to interactive installations, sing-alongs, and free performances and workshops.

International shows bound for Adelaide for the May 17-27 festival include Removed, a play from Northern Ireland that explores a young man’s experiences in state care and is described as both funny and moving. Meanwhile, Norwegian production We Come from Far, Far Away will use live music, storytelling, clowning and shadow puppetry to follow two boys from Aleppo in Syria on their complicated “road trip” to Norway.

Other highlights include the return of Adelaide company Patch Theatre’s colourful and immersive Sea of Light installation; a show based on Australian author Mem Fox’s Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge that blends storytelling and music and is performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra; an interactive theatre experience, Guthrak, inspired by Dungeons & Dragons; and a world-premiere performance at The Lab, Here and There, in which SA’s ActNow theatre company will use live streaming technology to bring together stories from six different and diverse artists in Australia, Malaysia, India, and Singapore.

DreamBIG includes the annual Big Family Weekend at the Festival Centre on May 20-21, with the full program now online.

Strike a chord

2022 Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition winner Connor Whyte. Photo: Claudio Raschella

Keen guitar players will have the opportunity to brush up on their strings skills with some of Australia’s top guitarists at the Adelaide Guitar Festival’s annual Winter School in July.

Registrations opened (here) this week for two Winter School programs: Blues & Roots and Adelaide Guitar Festival Orchestra.

The Blues & Roots school – led by Cal Williams Jnr with guest tutors and aimed at all ages from beginner to intermediate level – focuses on chord progressions, creative songwriting, collaborative development and blues guitar techniques. The Adelaide Guitar Festival Orchestra program, led by Paul Svoboda, focuses on nylon string and classical techniques, ensemble playing, and music reading development, with participants ultimately coming together for a full orchestral performance.

Online auditions have also now opened for the 2023 Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition, which offers a $10,000 cash prize, a Jim Redgate guitar worth $23,000, and a chance to perform at the Adelaide Guitar Festival. Details are available here.

Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture.

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