Shows with French artists at a festival called OzAsia? Yes, really! There are a few French artists among the shows at OzAsia Festival in Adelaide this year. From 25 October to 11 November, you will be able to see Asian shows within the OzAsia Festival, which presents the best of contemporary dance, theatre, music, visual arts, film, literature, food, family events, workshops and presentations and more from across Asia.
Sutra 2-3 November
Prize-winning Belgian choreographer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Comes back to OzAsia Festival to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his iconic masterpiece Sutra.
In this show, Cherkaoui will himself perform along with a troupe of 19 Shaolin Monks. Sutra is a show which combines exhilarating beauty of Kung-fu with Buddhist philosophy and contemporary dance.
With set design by sculptor, Antony Gormley, boxes become versatile moulding into various forms and motifs. Sutra flawlessly moves between tender moments and large scale physical actions. The breathtaking athleticism is accentuated by a score purpose-made by Polish composer, Szymon Brzóska.
Sutra is a powerful performance that has sold out everywhere it has played and received great critical success.
Tickets: $75
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts- 4, 11 and 13 November
This is a 2017 film from Indonesia, France, Malaysia and Thailand. In this subversive film, a woman who is saving to bury her mommified husband is visited by a local bandit who informs her that his gang plans to rob and then rape her. She decides to take things into her own hands. This is a Western spaghetti, strange, visceral, laugh out loud film.
Tickets: $17
War Sum Up – 5 & 6 November
War Sum Up is a show which can be summed up in three words: music, manga, machines.
It’s an opera in Japanese with English surtitles. War Sum Up tells the story of the war through 3 archetypal characters taken from Noh Theatre’s the classic texts. A soldier is sent home from war suffering from PTSD. A warrior is killed in battle, which prevents a natural transition to the other side. A spy is captured in war and must relearn her martial arts talents in order to be freed.
All of these stories are brought together by the lady in yellow – she’s the Mistress of the Game that starts the war.
War Sum Up reunites several musical styles and expressions. Classical in style but newly composed music is infused with a mix of chamber pop and electronic music, which immerses the audience in a powerful sonar landscape. It is the ultimate audio-visual requiem about destruction and loss.
Hotel Pro Forma’s Kirsten Dehlholm is War Sum Up’s director. In collaboration with The Irrepressibles, a pop art ensemble from the UK, and French electro artist Gilbert Nouno, War Sum Up will feature live performances from the Latvian Radio Choir at l’OzAsia Festival.
Tickets: $65
Moon Lantern Parade – Saturday 27 October
This parade is neither French nor francophone but for many it is the highlight of OzAsia Festival so we recommend you go see it.
This is the largest moon lantern parade in Australia with more than 40 handmade lanterns as well as the ever popular 40 metre long dragon from Hong Kong. This year there will be 9 new lanterns. At the parade, there will also be community and roving performances, a path of coloured lanterns across Elder Park, and lots of food options. The evening will finish with fireworks over the River Torrens.
Entry is free.
Which shows are you going to see at OzAsia Festival?
