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May 2007 E-Newsletter
Welcome to May – a time when nature softens its colours, birds fly north to avoid the chill, and life slips into a comfortable hibernation under the doona. Well, not here at the Judy – we’re just firing up! During May, the Judy presents a jam-packed and stimulating program of events encompassing contemporary dance, installations, multi-media, film, musicals, visual arts, jazz, chamber-pop, roots/folk and Japanese post-folk pop – all the incendiary ingredients needed to keep the autumn fires burning!
Opening tonight at 7.30pm is Mirage, the first season in our May – June focus on Brisbane’s independent dance scene. Described in Realtime as “An act of bravery, a gift, a deep reflection on human re-creative capacity..” Mirage is a performance installation with sumptuous video projections, sound-scapes and interactive mirror booths. This work explores phantom-limb experiences as a “body mirage” by playing on perceptual illusion. The work is inspired by performer James Cunningham and his quest to bring life back into his paralysed arm following an horrific accident in 1992, and uses a reflective pool and multi-dimensional projections to simulate movement – fusing and separating the real and virtual.
The audience is invited to use a series of mirror boxes to explore experiences that play on perception and distortion; come and go between two spaces within the Theatre, move around the performance/installation throughout the show, and choose to stay and see both cycles of the 45-minute loop. Projections by Suzon Fuks; sound scapes by Andrew Kettle; lighting design by Morgan Randall and set design by Alison Ross. This short season runs until Thursday 3 May.
On Thursday, come in from the cold and hear visual artist and musician Mike Cooper perform live to the classic 1924 Russian silent film Aelita. Follow our Moscovite engineer as he builds a rocket to reach his obsession Aelita - the Queen of Mars. The film’s portrait of hardscrabble post-revolutionary life peaks when the engineer reaches Mars just in time to witness the eruption of a slave rebellion!
Following the Sunday Mail’s mauling of Fluxus in 2006 (which included the chain-sawing of a piano), come and see what young curator Rebecca Cunningham has assembled now in Chambers this coming Saturday night. Take a journey through six separate chambers, each with a distinct soundscape and visual environment that explore the world around and within us. Chambers is arranged chance, regulated anarchy and features Robin Fox, Alicia Jones, Jan Baker-Finch, Richelle Spence and Rebecca Cunningham. For one night only!
From Wednesday 9 May, come and be entertained by the raw and exciting off-Broadway hit The Last Five Years – a chronicle of a young couple’s romance. Highly acclaimed in New York and London, this unusual but highly accessible musical by Tony-Award winner Jason Robert Brown is Brisbane’s newest theatre company Oscar Theatre’s debut production and is the first professional production of this work in Queensland! In reviewing this enchanting work, the New York Times said it “pulses with dangerous, irresistible giddiness..”. Runs only until Saturday 12 May.
Our focus on independent dance continues on 8 and 9 May with the first of the FREE Bell Tower II series featuring the newest works by Fez Fa’anana, Elise May and Leah Shelton. Bell Tower II’s second season is on 29 and 30 May and features contemporary Indigenous choreography by Marilyn Miller and others.
As part of the Judy’s Emerge series of new Queensland plays, we are excited to co-present The Siren’s Kiss. The latest work by award-winning playwright Sven Swenson (Vertigo & the Virginia and Road to the She-Devil’s Salon) is a naughty, laugh-a-minute, film-noir whodunit presented as a rehearsed, partially costumed dramatised reading with a live band - all in a cabaret setting! Marking Tony Auckland’s much anticipated return to directing, this production features some of the best theatre performers in town including Damien Garvey and Liz Buchanan in the lead roles, supported by Jonathan Brand, Margi Brown Ash, Helen Howard, Sally McKensie, James Stewart and Candice Storey. A brand new, unorthodox and compelling spoof! Runs only until Thursday 17 May – be quick.
For the music lovers amongst you, catch iconic Australian organic chamber pop maestros My Friend the Chocolate Cake on Friday 18 May as part of their national Home Improvements Tour. Alternatively, get into some outstanding folk and roots with the internationally-acclaimed Australian guitarist Jeff Lang on Saturday 19 May. Then again, why not swing into the Judy and take 5 with the much anticipated Ben Winkelman Trio hot out of Melbourne on their first national tour on Saturday 26 May, or take a trip with post-folk popsters The Tennis Coats on 31 May direct from Japan supported by local audio candy For Barry Ray and The Deadnotes.
Please note that the ticket prices for the Misinterprotato concert on 7 July were incorrectly printed in our May – August Program. Actual prices range between $15 and $25 – all other details in the Program are correct.
Why not come down to the Judy before the show and have a bite to eat or a drink at Glass Bar and check out the latest exhibitions by Australian photographer Bill Henson and the eight-screen video work of French film maker Chris Marker in the Institute of Modern Art.
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We hope to see you at the Judy soon.
Stefan Greder
A/General Manager
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| | Mirage
Tuesday 1st - Thursday 3rd May
Mirage, by Brisbane’s award-winning independent multimedia company Igneous, is a labyrinth of mirror games,... 
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| | Mike Cooper - Aelita (1924, Russia)
Thu 3 May
AELITA - 1924 (Russia) by Yakov Protazanov revolves around a married Moscow engineer who dreams of Aelita, the Queen of Mars, and...
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| | Chambers
Sat 5 May
CHAMBERS is arranged chance, regulated anarchy: a coming together of artists and practices to create a collage of images and...
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| | The Last Five Years
Wed 9 - Sat 12 May (Short season - 4 days only!)
Written and Composed by JASON ROBERT BROWN. Originally Produced for the New York stage by...
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| | Bell Tower II Showings
Wed 19 Sept - Thu 20 Sept
working from Ausdance Queensland's Bell Tower Choreographic Workshop, sequePICo, a group of independant dance...
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| | The Siren's Kiss
Tue 15 - Thu 17 May
“I’ll see you undone” said the spider-woman to the fly. Come on a laugh-a-minute, who-dunnit rollercoaster-ride of...
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| | My Friend The Chocolate Cake
Fri 18 May (ONE NIGHT ONLY!)
"My Friend the Chocolate Cake is back and ready to roll with a brand new studio album. 'HOME IMPROVEMENTS'...
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| | Jeff Lang
Sat 19 May
Australian based musician Jeff Lang has earned worldwide acclaim as a virtuosic guitarist, a dynamic songwriter and a startling...
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| | The Ben Winkelman Trio
Sat 26 May
Diverse, dynamic, hard-hitting, free-thinking… the Ben Winkelman Trio is a contemporary jazz piano trio that draws on diverse...
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| | Ninehoursnorth featuring the Tenniscoats
Thu 31 May
Listening to Japan's Tenniscoats is like discovering the true meaning of song for the first time. Their softly swerving melodic...
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