Darwin Festival
Fergus Brown
The Lighthouse. Darwin Festival 2010. 15 August 2010.
There are two weeks, each August, when a unique live music venue appears in Darwin. It is called the lighthouse. Housed in corrugated iron and under a ceiling of fairy lights, stars and night air, punters fill grandstands and cabaret style tables to watch the magic of Darwin Festival acts. The very charm of this tiny little venue is an intimate experience with artists who span artistic genres and experience levels.
I might be calling this early, given that the lighthouse is only in its second year, but the lighthouse seems to produce, each year, a pleasant surprise which goes on to provide a new favourite CD long after the Festival has finished. Whilst we are only 5 days into this year’s Festival, I have a feeling I may have found my unexpected gem for 2010 in the form of Fergus Brown.
Fergus Brown showcased his 2009 album Burgers Frown, to a captivated Darwin audience. The set was guitar pop stylings with influences resonate of the Shins, The Magnetic Fields and early Elvis Costello. Stylistically his songs start as slow laid back pop tunes and build in tempo and intensity.
It would seem that I have been living under a Territory rock as Burgers Frown has already produced 4 well received singles; “John, she was never only dancing”, “Hot Kisses, Cold Tiles”, “Last Winter” and “Nerds in love.” All of which were played, along with covers of Pulp and the Magnetic Fields, plus a swag of other originals.
Fergus sings of love but is saved from self indulgent whinging by an incredibly quirky mind. His quirks and cheeky humour are reflected both through his lyrics and the zany rapport he builds with the audience. The flip side is also a sadness not usually found in such a raw way in pop songs.
Fergus was joined on stage, and on his album, by talented friends. Of special mention is Holly Austin. Holly is a pocket rocket one woman band. She singularly provided the backing of an orchestra with only a key board, a drum set, a loop machine, a tambourine, killer vocals and unexpected beat box skills. You have never seen someone play a rubber burger with such aplomb. Holly is a gifted musician and, like Fergus, creates relationships with the audience. I am looking forward to seeing where her career takes her in the future.
Burgers Frown, Fergus Brown and band were a Sunday night pleasure.
Goose Lagoon
Gary Lang NT dance company
The Playhouse, Darwin Entertainment Centre. Darwin Festival 2010. 13 – 15 August 2010
Set against the backdrop of Arnhem Land’s northern flood plains, Goose Lagoon weaves the story of the magpie geese of the top end; the furl of wings in the first light of the wet season, the frenetic struggle against the hunters gun, the tender love of delicate young goslings.
The Gary Lang NT Dance Company is a Territory based contemporary dance company. The company’s vision is to build an indigenous owned and sustainable troop which fosters indigenous and non indigenous dancers and brings the experience of dance to the top end. The Darwin Festival 2010 was therefore the perfect forum to showcase the world premiere of Goose Lagoon.
Goose Lagoon’s original score by Panos Couros incorporated the traditional song lines of the Djapu clan with contemporary composures, to create an audio feast. The score was breathtaking. Ursula Yovich’s ethereal wailing in the closing scene was haunting and humbling.
Goose Lagoon juxtaposed dance and puppetry in order to create a visual experience that spanned artistic genres. The puppetry was directed by Erth Visual and Physical Theatre . The company interspersed human movement and role of the dancers with the puppets to enhance the story told. Puppets of magpie geese in their full form were then broken down to the individual elements of the geese, such as the wings or the neck and head, to create visually powerful moments. However, the black robes of the puppeteers detracted from some scenes rather than creating the invisibility and anonymity sought , particularly given that the lighting back drop to most scenes were the brilliant reds, oranges and greens of the Territory wet season. Perhaps the puppeteers would have been better to have been incorporated into the body of the piece rather than clumsily hidden in the robes.
The choreography was a meeting of traditional dance and culture with contemporary based movement specialising in incredible moments of partner work and full body lifts. Tara Robertson’s opening scene where she transitioned from human to goose after hearing traditional voices, was chilling in its choreography and execution. The dancers channelled the mannerisms and characteristics of the geese in a conceptually realistic and often beautiful manner. Goose Lagoon is a story resonate of Swan Lake. The company payed chorographical homage to Swan Lake with a snippet of the original “dance of the signet”.
The company’s ethos is to support Territory dancers of a broad experience and training base and that was sometimes reflected in moments when the dancing was not as tight or as synchronised as it could have been. With some further development and technical training the piece could transition from a local work to something which can travel with acclaim.
Finally, and perhaps most enjoyable, was the enthusiasm with which the Darwin community supports the home grown company. Goose Lagoon played to generous crowds, with a sell out performance on their final night. The excited way in which the crowd of mixed demographic discussed the piece was a touching ode to the company. Goose Lagoon is a piece that the Gary Lang NT Dance Company can be proud.
B2M re-mixed live with Countbounce
The Amphitheatre Intimate. Darwin Festival 2010. 18 August 2010.
Formed in 2004 in their home community of Wurrumiyanga (Nguiu) in the Tiwi Islands, B2M is a 6 piece R n’ B pop band with traditional flavor. The band is comprised of young indigenous men who sing about the issues that effect their community and young people generally such as drugs, alcohol and suicide. B2M signature is vocal harmonizing with an R n B, hip hop edge.
The show opened with the body of work that the guys had been working on over the period of B2M’s 6 year life. I was immediately struck by how tight and professional the outfit is. And this comes as no surprise; the quality of music coming out of top end communities is going from strength to strength with the assistance of record labels such as Skinnyfish Music. As Fabian Kantialla, B2M’s vocalist, states in his artist bio, it is bands such as Yothu Yindi and the Warumpi Band taking their music to a mainstream audience that inspires him to take music seriously. The re-mixed concept of the Darwin Festival show finds the established sounds of B2M reworked with digital beats and dynamic live on stage re-mix to their signature harmony.
My only critique of the band is that some of their sounds seem a little dated for a commercial market. Which is why the collaboration with beatmaker, producer and songwriter Countbounce aka Pip Norman of TZU fame is a massive coup for the Tiwi guys. Countbounce is helping the guys update their genre and step up to deliver a stack of edgy new songs. Together they have been working on the band’s latest album, which has a current working title of “22-13”. This is exciting stuff. The guys sing in a fusion of Tiwi language and English, where their older material was predominately sung in English, whilst incorporating traditional sounds with fat beats and their signature harmonizing. “Home” is definitely a single in the making!
B2M played at the Amphitheathre in the Darwin Botanical Gardens. The joy of the Darwin Festival 2010 is the capacity to support local and emerging artists from the Top End. The flow on of this is the enthusiasm with which Top End locals support their home grown acts. The B2M audience was full of Tiwi people who had travelled from the islands to support their boys. The gig was a celebration of culture and community spirit. Tiny children sat in the front and sang along word for word whilst grandparents danced and hollered.
Finally I don’t feel like I can write about this band without acknowledging some of their achievements. B2M left the Darwin Festival to travel to Shanghai to represent the Northern Territory at World Expo. In 2009, the band honored their commitment to music as a vehicle for positive outcomes, by delivering song-writing workshops to approximately 400 indigenous people in 11 remote Northern Territory communities. B2M also won the “Emerging Artist of the Year” award at the NT Indigenous Music Awards in 2008.
http://www.myspace.com/bathurst2melville
When His Watch Stopped. Sadari Theatre company (Korea)
The Studio, Darwin Entertainment Centre. Darwin Festival 2010. 20 August 2010.
How do you discuss the raw devastation of war? How do you discuss the raw devastation of war with children?
When His Watch Stopped is an original children’s play about war by the Sadari Theatre Company. The Company was founded in 1988 with a vision to specialise in children’s drama. The company uses traditional play elements combined with puppetry and expressive body movement to help children improve their imagination and ability to express themselves.
When His Watch Stopped follows a young solider called up to war, leaving behind his new bride. It is a viscerally sad piece of physical theatre following the lives of the soldier and his wife to reflect the impact of war on soldiers and civilians, on families and individuals and the environment in which they live. Throughout the young soldier is followed by the ticking of a watch; the parting gift from his wife.
First performed in 2004, When His Watch Stopped expands the horizons of a children’s play, opening a dialogue about the issues of war for children and adults alike. The piece strips away traditional methods of communication, it is non verbal and the actors wear masks for the most part which hide facial expression. Instead the story is told through physical movement, puppetry, projected images and the musical score. The serious content of the pieces was juxtaposed with choreography which at times was almost comical, with slap stick style movements. At pivotal moments for the characters the actors would remove their masks and let the raw expressions on their faces tell the emotional consequences of the physical reality of the situation.
The physical theatre was enhanced with thought provoking imagery. The projection of black and white photographs of war victims onto the woman’s veil was moving. And at the play’s conclusion children from the audience were called upon to attaching new shoots, leaves and a return of wildlife to the skeleton of a dead tree.
Over the course of the Darwin Festival 2010 I have seen a lot of puppetry and have found that hiding the puppeteers can be more distracting. The Sadari Theatre Company however, created a synergy between the puppets and puppeteers by having the puppets manipulated by the actors. This allowed the puppets to become an extension of the characters.
When His Watch Stopped was a times a heavy piece. However, it was also a tender and interactive production which “considers young people’s impressions of a weighty issue in a supposedly adult world.”
When His Watch Stopped can be seen in Sydney at the Sydney Opera House on August 25-28 2010 and in Adelaide at OzAsia Festival on September 20-21 2010.
