Green Room: WOMAD’s full line-up, taking art to the regions
SA arts and culture news in brief: WOMADelaide announces final 35 artists for next year, award-winning play Euphoria among highlights of Country Arts SA’s 2023 program unveiled this week, and Cabaret Festival’s Variety Gala proves a hot ticket.
They're a brass band... but not as you know it. Germany's MEUTE are bound for WOMADelaide in 2023.
Bringing the beats to Botanic Park
A “techno marching band” from Germany and a Colombian supergroup whose music spans traditional cumbia, hip-hop, reggae, punk, electronica, jazz, salsa and Afrobeat feature in the final line-up of artists announced for next year’s WOMADelaide.
Eleven drummers and horn players from Hamburg make up MEUTE, who came to international attention with their performance of a remix of Flume’s “You & Me” that went viral on YouTube and will make their Australian debut with three high-energy shows in Botanic Park.
Colombia’s multi-generation collective Ondatrópica, whose mission is to reinterpret their country’s tropical music, will present a one-off performance on Sunday celebrating their tenth anniversary and also paying homage to the late salsa king Michi Sarmiento.
A total of 35 artists feature in today’s up announcement, with other highlights including Grammy-winning American blues and roots artist Fantastic Negrito, London jazz collective Kokoroko, Romanian folk musicians Tarafde Caliu (a spin-off of gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks), Argentinian tango five-piece Quinteto Astor Piazzolla, Ukrainian/Canadian electro-folk trio Balaklava Blues, Maori singer Ria Hall, Australia blues-soul-rock organ player Lachy Doley with The Lachy Doley Group, and Aboriginal hip-hop group Dem Mob from the APY Lands.
The full line-up for the March 10-13 world music festival – including previously announced headliners such as Youssou N’Dour, The Proclaimers, Sampa the Great, Bon Iver, Florence + The Machine, and the feather-fuelled aerial show Place des Anges – is now on the WOMADelaide website.
Taking it to the regions
James Smith in Euphoria. Photo: Chris Herzfeld / Camlight Productions
Country Arts SA has released a diverse collection of touring shows and events for its 30th anniversary year in 2023, including Adelaide playwright Emily Steele’s acclaimed award-winning play Euphoria.
Euphoria, which explores mental health issues within a story set in a small country town, premiered in 2021 and was described by InReview critic Rachael Mead as “wildly funny and heartbreaking”. It will be remounted next year, with a tour taking in Renmark, Whyalla, Port Pirie and Mount Gambier in August, before a short return run at the Odeon Theatre in Norwood as part of State Theatre SA’s recently announced 2023 season. The play will also tour to New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.
Among the other live shows Country Arts SA is taking to the regions are Restless Dance Theatre’s Exposed, Slingsby’s Emil and the Detectives, and Patch Theatre’s children’s show Zooom. Nunukul and Ngugi playwright and director Wesley Enoch’s swinging musical The Sunshine Club, which tells the story of an Aboriginal soldier returning home to Brisbane after World War II, will have its South Australian premiere with performances in five different centres.
The 2023 program also features several touring exhibitions, including Bee stung lips: Barbara Hanrahan works on paper 1960-1991, which was originally presented at the Flinders Museum of Art (read our review here) and comprises more than 70 prints from the celebrated Adelaide-born artist’s 30-year career.
Explore the full season on the Country Arts SA website.
All-star Variety Gala is just the ticket
The idea of bringing back an all-star line-up of former Adelaide Cabaret Festival artistic directors for the 2023 event has struck a chord with cabaret fans, seeing the red-carpet Variety Gala become the fastest-selling such event in the festival’s history.
As revealed on Sunday, former ADs Kate Ceberano, David Campbell, Eddie Perfect, Julia Zemiro, Ali McGregor, Tina Arena, Alan Cumming, Julia Holt and Lisa Campbell will all curate and/or perform shows at the June 9-24 festival. “Cabaret Collective” members Ceberano, Campbell, Perfect, Zemiro and McGregor will also make an appearance at the Variety Gala, which the centre reports had a record first 24 hours of ticket sales following the announcement.
“We are elated with the response to the ‘Cabaret Collective’ and the stellar line-up of the opening night Variety Gala… next year’s event will be a huge party with so many iconic artists in the mix and celebrating Adelaide Festival Centre’s 50th birthday,” says festival executive producer Alex Sinclair.
The gala is the only show announced so far and tickets are still available. The full Cab Fest program is expected to be released in late March.
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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