Melbourne’s Rising Festival

Image: Kaleidoscope.

On the first night of winter, artists, musicians and creatures of the night will pulse through a city reawakened.  A festival three years in the making, created by Melbourne and reconnecting with the world, RISING is inviting audiences to get lost, go deep and shake loose. This is the festival the city has been waiting for. A surge of art, music, performance and ceremony in the heart of Melbourne, RISING will run from 1—12 June 2022.

Set to envelop the city and its surrounds, RISING will comprise 225 events—including 22 commissions and 14 world premieres—featuring 801 local and international artists, who will take the city as their canvas, transforming its streets, gardens, carparks, waterways and rooftops in an explosion of culture aimed squarely at the heart of Melbourne’s night-time scene.

Across 12 nights, Melbourne will come alive with an array of free and family focussed events; transformative public art installations; large-scale performances; intimate works of theatre; dance; and a music program that traverses the globe from Japan to Switzerland, South London to Saskatchewan—the program also marks the city’s first international music festival line-up in over two years.

“In such tumultuous times, the privilege and necessity to gather, dance, sing and celebrate artistic expression is not lost on us,” said RISING Co-Artistic Directors, Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek. “Melbourne is back and we’re over the moon.”

“RISING will be a massive celebration of many of the things we love about Melbourne said  Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson. “From edgy art to great food, awe-inspiring installations and hidden creative surprises. Showcasing the work of hundreds of local, national and international creatives, the festival is an invitation to rediscover the very best of Victoria’s culture and creativity.”

Performing Arts Events

Image: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Photographer: Daniel Boud

The Picture of Dorian Gray

 In pursuit of eternal youth, the beautiful young Dorian Gray strikes a devil’s bargain to fix his image in time. But his hedonistic pursuit comes at a devastating cost. In a world entranced by Instagram filters, in which dead actors return to the screen as digital ghosts, The Picture of Dorian Gray questions society’s preoccupation with youth at the expense of nurturing the wisdom of age. 

At the heart of Sydney Theatre Company’s retelling of Oscar Wilde’s 19th Century novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a single actor Eryn Jean Norvill plays all 26 characters. With direction by Kip Williams, Norvill morphs across screen and stage with live camera work; in costumes inspired by Harry Styles, Prince and PJ Harvey. 

Maureen: Habringer of Death

With cigarette smoke curling through the air, and Jatz cracker crumbs settling on the carpet, Maureen sits before you. You’re her guest, so you’d better sit up and listen. 

It’s in this bohemian living room, accompanied by minimal props or costume, that writer and performer Jonny Hawkins transforms into Maureen: a razor tongued doyenne with stories to tell, inspired by Hawkins’ friend and self-described “working class glamour queen”. 

Co-created with director Nell Ranney, Maureen: Harbinger of Death, is a celebration of the rich lives of older women. It lifts up the wisdom, experience, vitality, kindness and humour of women too often overlooked or dismissed by society. A night of wit, imagination and storytelling. 

Image: Maureen: Harbinger of Death. Photogtrapher: Clare Hawley.

Jurrungu ngan-ga

Multimedia dance production Jurrungu ngan-ga reflects on the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in custody, and the years-long detention of refugees. Literally translating to English as “straight talk”, Jurrungu ngan-ga takes its inspiration from the words and experiences of Yawuru leader Patrick Dodson, Kurdish-Iranian writer and former Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani, and philosopher Omid Tofighian. With characteristic dedication, the dance company Marrugeku bridges Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures, working with urban and remote communities and identities in this lauded production.

The Invisible Opera

The Invisible Opera is a contemporary performance work for public space. Amongst the bustle of Federation Square it unfolds as an observation of the ambient patterns of everyday life, The Invisible Opera gradually leads us to see the city—and our role within it—in a completely new light. Created by Australian multidisciplinary performer Sophia Brous with cperformance-makers Lara Thoms, Samara Hersch and Bessie-Award winning US choreographer Faye Driscoll, the work utilises immersive sound design, electroacoustic orchestration and live vocal performance beamed in through a network of CCTV cameras and hidden microphones that map each movement of the square in real-time.

Image: The Invisible Opera

Moving Objects

Conceived for RISING as part of MOVING OBJECTS (a collection of new work by First Peoples artists curated by RISING Artistic Associate Kimberley Moulton) wurukur djuanduk balag—Ancestors Are Calling makes its debut over two performances on Woi Wurrung, and Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Composed in multiple First Peoples languages by Dr Lou Bennett AM (Yorta Yorta Dja Dja Wurrung), the song-based work responds to the cultural belongings of First Peoples held in the Melbourne Museum collections. It speaks to the living culture of the objects, which are alive with the spirit and energy of the Country and people from which they came.

The Return

Locked away in museums, on display at universities and hoarded in private collections are the bodily remains of First Peoples men, women, and children, pillaged by grave robbers and sold on by unscrupulous dealers. The Return is inspired by director Jason Tamiru’s (Yorta Yorta) experiences as a repatriation worker, and the discredited and harmful scientific theory of eugenics, which Australia was once a hotspot for. Writer John Harvey (Torres Strait Islands) weaves three intersecting narratives—a repatriation officer, a museum curator and a bone collector—in a story spanning 250 years, in this co-production with Malthouse Theatre.

Image: The Return

Janet’s Vagrant Love

A bare single mattress, empty water bottles and a small table are the seemingly barebones scaffolding of Janet’s Vagrant Love— a work 20-years in the making. When combined with the commanding performance and song of Elaine Crombie (Pitjantjatjara, Warrigmai and South Sea Islander), that simple set becomes a powder keg of emotion. Crombie shares her truth, telling stories of childhood trauma and the struggles of raising young Blak men as a single mum doing the best she can. Raw and intimate songs and experiences are punctuated with one-liners and sharp observations.

Image: Janet's Vagrant Love. Photographer: Joseph Blackwell

Manifesto

In Stephanie Lake Company’s Manifesto, nine dancers twist with the motions of ballet, contemporary dance and hip hop as thunderous percussion rises. In front of a watermelon velvet background, on an elevated set, are nine drum kits and drummers. In precision concert, they unleash rebellion, command obedience, radiate wonder and show tenderness. Manifesto promises a tornado of movement, sound and will.

The Wilds

Returning after playing for just one night in 2021, The Wilds will once again spring to life, rendering the Sidney Myer Music Bowl indistinguishable (as we know it). Sprawling structures and eccentric performances blur the lines between the earthly and otherworldly.

A fluoro fantasy of art, sound, taste and ice, this year’s iteration of The Wilds sees New York-based Australian artists Tin & Ed create an all-new technicolour world. Science and nature co-exist in a multicellular meadow of giant inflatable sculptures and digital art deploying video game design engines.

Image: Discordia

Meanwhile, mythic architectural organisms will populate The Wilds care of the Filipino contemporary fine artist Leeroy New. Using the recycled bamboo bones of The Wilds 2021, New has built a tangled, abundant landscape blurring the lines between the organic and constructed.

Cult snacks at The Wilds—from the likes of 1800 Lasagne and Smith & Daughters—and multi-course feasts will provide fuel for new leaves to bud at pop-up kitchens and a glowing glasshouse bistro, The Lighthouse, helmed by celebrated chefs David Moyle, Jo Barrett and Matt Stone. Punters can then complete their night by ascending the Bowl’s stage to zip around an ice-skating rink, while the Night Chorus belts out reconstructed ‘80s and ‘90s hits.

Set Piece

Nat Randall and Anna Breckon will present Set Piece—a work that eliminates the boundaries between film and stage. Crafted from a script that draws on real-life dinner party conversation, improvisation and ‘50s pulp fiction, Set Piece juxtaposes lesbian fantasy with the queer ordinary. Combining the language of film with the craft of theatre, Breckon and Randall wield nuanced camera work to bridge the gap between observer and observed.

21 Pornographies

In 21 Pornographies, Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen embarks on a one-woman exploration of power, submission and observation. Often bearing little connection to explicit sex, Ingvartsen’s performance evokes the clinical precision, violence and cruelty of pornography—as well as its thrill, titillation and banal humour.

Rewards for the Tribe

Rewards for the Tribe sees dance companies Chunky Move and Restless Dance Theatre collaborate for the first time. Together they ask if utopia by design is even possible. Five dancers, with and without disability, wrestle with the archetypes of divine geometry laid out by the Old Masters. Together they bend, crumple and reorganise a Mondrian-inspired whimsical set and costumes designed by Jonathan Oxlade. Rewards for the Tribe celebrates the imaginations of artists while embracing life’s exquisite chaos.

Piano Transplants

In 1968, New Zealand-born composer and deep listener Annea Lockwood set fire to an irreparable, upright piano on the banks of the River Thames in London. It was the first of her Piano Transplants, a series of pieces that reconfigured people’s relationship to one of the most iconic instruments of our age—the piano. For the first time ever, RISING will present all Piano Transplants in one series.

Image: Working On My Night Moves. Photographer: Andy Crown

Working On My Night Moves

Shimmering astronauts, lost girls, phosphorescent stars, and vast feminist galaxies. Winner of a Total Theatre Award 2019, Julia Croft and Nisha Madhan are breaking the rules, the patriarchy and the space-time continuum in this intergalactic Wizard of Oz that sees an unhinged Dorothy—and the space travellers she meets on the way—racing around rich universes and distant worlds, before a standing audience. Working On My Night Moves is a playful experiment in feminist theatre and a communal expedition to the star-cloaked corners of deep space.

Multitud

Footsteps speed up, laughter infects the crowd, clothes are shredded and limbs flail. Seventy people have reached a critical mass. Multitud, from Uruguayan choreographer Tamara Cubas, examines the power that lies within bodies, and what happens when they collide. In the lead-up to the performance, Cubas will bring together 70 people from different age groups, backgrounds, communities and artistic practices. Together they devise the work’s sound, movement and energy.

Image: Multitud.

HOW TO LIVE (After You Die)

For HOW TO LIVE (After You Die), Emmy award-winning filmmaker and artist Lynette Wallworth brings her rstorytelling skills to the stage in a snew work that sheds light on the seduction of cultish extremism. It’s a story she had never planned to tell, mainly because she’s the central character.

Single Channel Video

With Single Channel Video, Geelong’s pioneering Back to Back Theatre cracks open the archive, conjuring an op-shop of the soul filmed live onstage. Behind a huge projection screen lies a museum of the everyday. Its shelves are stacked with objects both meaningful and absurd, from a Britney Spears poster to a journal passed down through generations. Each seemingly insignificant treasure however, holds a story: ridiculous, banal and profound. Single Channel Video unboxes our relationship to objects, and their ability to act as totems of memory and experience.

Anything & Everything

Anything & Everything is a glimpse into the intimate online and IRL spaces, where young people navigate identity, ability, gender diversity and consent. Director Jackson Castiglione leads an ensemble of artists, aged between 11 and 21, who’ve largely collaborated solely over Zoom for two years. As the young performers joke, share and converse live onstage, their peers manipulate cameras, digital filters and pre-recorded video. Together they augment their identities in real-time to explore the space between screen and reality.

Image: 8/8/8: Work

8/8/8: Work

In 8/8/8: Work the world of Comic Sans reply-alls is taken offline, by artists Harriet Gillies and Marcus McKenzie, in an experimental marathon performance. Join the life coaching duo—and the rat race—in this absurd corporate seminar. As the performance spills from a maze of queues and QR codes and into new spaces, bodies will rise en masse, to break free from cubicles and bring to life the casual Friday horrors of human production lines and capitalist consumption.

HIJRA’H

In HIJRA’H Indonesian choreographer and dancer Rianto dives deep into the history and culture of Sulawesi to uncover the diverse and complex approaches to gender that exist in the traditional cultural and dance forms of this island. Exploring the migration of gender, memory and the body, Rianto is joined on stage by his childhood friend and long-time collaborator Cahwati alongside Sulawesi performance maker Abdi Karya.

The Dancing Public

When Danish dancer and choreographer Mette Ingvartsen began working on The Dancing Public in 2019, she was seeking to incorporate audience participation in her work, but the Covid-19 pandemic added new layers of meaning. Research led Ingvartsen to study choreomanias—mysterious mass dancing events that occurred across Europe between the 14^th and 17^th centuries.  With The Dancing Public, Ingvartsen deploys garbled narration, bodily urges and the beat of the nightclub, to connect times of crisis with the desire for movement and connection in public spaces.

Fart Fabulous

A farty party for grands, teenagers and grandkids alike. Fart Fabulous is a punk variety show bursting with circus, drag, dance, visual art and live music. Reverberating with the rock and roll spirit, the cast remind us that bodies have folds, make noises and come in all sizes, shapes and genders—all of them are valid and all of them fart. Fart Fabulous is a jam-packed hour of queer celebration, rebellious performance, comedy and joyful anarchy. 

Image: Fart Fabulous

Kaleidoscope

Scaling a deceptively simple toy to epic proportions, Kaleidoscope allows you to step inside a constantly shifting illusion. A brand new solo project by Keith Courtney, one of the masterminds behind House of Mirrors and 1000 Doors, Kaleidoscope provides the brave and adventurous with a new and different space to explore, contemplate and dream. An experience that disorientates the senses, providing access to a new kind of engagement with beauty and tranquility in a colour field of ever-changing light.  

Music

Curated by Woody McDonald, RISING’S music program takes over The Forum Theatre, Max Watts and Melbourne Recital Centre with a forward thinking line-up. With 26 international acts—including Moses Sumney, Kelly Lee Owens, Baxter Dury, Lucy Dacus, Arab Strap, Masego, Shabazz Palaces, and Andy Shauf, who will make his Australian debut, and many more—this heralds the return of international music to Australian festivals at long last.

Created by the Victorian Government, RISING is a major event that celebrates Melbourne’s creative strengths – art, music, food and more.

RISING has been conceived and commissioned to become the Asia Pacific’s preeminent cultural festival. An event like no other; an experience uniquely tethered to place. A three-year odyssey comes to fruition this June.

RISING takes place Wed 1 June—Sun 12 June 2022

www.rising.melbourne

Tickets on sale Friday 25 March

Presale available from Monday 21 March, 12pm