Season 2: A View from the Inside
A word from our Artistic Director Emily Sexton
Welcome to Arts House Season 2. As we continue to live in a world grappling with interlocking challenges, we are so proud to present these stellar artists who ask hard questions and serve up deep joy and satisfaction through new art.
Season 2 sees us open with Chamber Made’s SYSTEM_ERROR, a remarkable meeting of the theatre-making skill of Tam Saulwick, the direction of Lucy Guerin and the instrument-building creative genius of choreographer Alisdair Macindoe. Their ruminations on memory and frailty are expanded by data visualist Melanie Huang and writer Emilie Collyer. This journey through sound continues with the collision of underground music icon Simona Castricum and video artist Carla Zimbler. I’m particularly excited to see Simona in “intimate stadium” mode, surrounded by a really beautiful set – a level of design ambition rarely possible for one-night gigs. After this immersion, venture down into Arts House’s depths and get your fingernails dirty in Mulch Underground for drinks, tunes, dance and interactive botanical delights with Lichen Kelp, Dylan Martorell, Jason Hood and Benjamin Hancock.
In August we proudly welcome back long-term collaborators Marrugeku, with Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk]. This critical new performance features one of the best dance ensembles you could assemble in this country, wrapped around by a dazzling team of creatives. I am always in awe of Marrugeku but the introduction to their Broome community premiere from Senator Patrick Dodson sums up the power and potential of this new art best: watch it here. As a proud Yawuru man, as a Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody thirty years ago, as a politician and as Artistic Director Dalisa Pigrum’s grandfather and patron for Marrugeku: it was Senator Dodson who provided the inspiration for this new work with his observation “because we lack the ability to straight talk to one another about cultural difference, fear grows in each generation, holding community and society back in multiple ways.” You cannot miss this show.
Finally, in September we welcome back feminist iconoclasts The Rabble with an all-weather saturation that asks us to investigate our relationship to truth in a post-traumatic world. The entire script: a relentless sequence of questions that rise, settle, provoke, rise again. I am delighted to present this work, which has gestated in directors Emma Valente and Kate Davis’ minds for so long and is finally, rightly, taking place in 2021.
We hope you will join us and we want to make it easy. For Seasons 2 and 3 in 2021 we have a special ticketing initiative: all shows will be available to everyone for only $20. It’s been a tight financial time for a lot of people, particularly our community. We think what our artists do is both radical and relevant, and we want as many people as possible to find out why.
Emily Sexton
Artistic Director, Arts House
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Image: Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk], Marrugeku. Photo by Abby Murray.
