By Rama Gaind.
Events for the 2021 Sydney Festival are bold and memorable experiences that ignite, unite and excite the city of Sydney.
A new year has begun, and with it, Harbour City has transformed into a “cultural cacophony of theatre, music, dance and ideas”. However, the health and safety of participants and the audience have been at the forefront of the 2021 Sydney Festival.
A lot of planning has gone into ensuring that this year’s festival is a Covid-safe environment.
The festival, which runs until 26 January, has a focus on the recovery and rejuvenation of Australian arts, celebrating the very best new Australian work and the joy of shared live experiences.
More than 130 events and festival venues have organised COVID-19 safety plans and have implemented mandatory Department of Health regulations including capacity and social distancing measures, and registration where required.
Every year in January, Sydney Festival presents bold and memorable experiences that ignite, unite and excite the city. In 2021, the festival is ‘made for you’, building on the proud 44-year history of commissioning and presenting inspiring and ground-breaking new Australian art, with a program that celebrates the best work from fine artists and companies.
Grab a ticket to see H.M.S. Pinafore that is a sharp satire of the English social hierarchical system of the Victorian Age.
As festival director Wesley Enoch points out more than 1,000 artists, companies and venues have “come together in a rare sign of solidarity to produce and promote an All Australian Made program that will showcase our country’s creative, cultural and artistic excellence”.
“Our internationally acclaimed, homegrown talent have found themselves grounded in 2020, but at Sydney Festival 2021 you can see how the very best of the world can be in your own back yard.”
Spectacular events
From Parramatta to Chippendale, Sydney provides a canvas of engaging and immersive events, exhibitions, workshops and talks. A spectacular new Covid-safe pop-up stage at Barangaroo Reserve – The Headland stage – is an impressive 32 metres wide, and decked out with twin side screens offering close-up views of performers. Set against the backdrop of Sydney Harbour, the stage features the festival’s biggest theatrical performances and companies – from Bangarra to Sydney Symphony, Paul Mac to Paul Capsis.
There’s plenty of variety to please the palate at the 2021 Sydney Festival.
Alongside the Barangaroo program, the festival’s headline events include: Sunshine Super Girl – the theatrical celebration of Wiradjuri woman Evonne Goolagong’s life story which will see Sydney Town Hall transformed into a tennis court; and The Last Season, a provoking new work of dance theatre by Force Majeure that explores human survival and environmental destruction. Inspired by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, The Last Season features stage icons Pamela Rabe, Olwen Fouéré and Paul Capsis alongside a cast of 15 young performers.
Following their global smash-hit Humans, virtuosic circus ensemble Circa returns to the festival with a new intimate and joyous love letter to humanity, Humans 2.0. Co-written by Tasmanian playwright Nathan Maynard (Palawa) and Aotearoa writer Jamie McCaskill (Māori), Hide the Dog is a truly trans-Tasman creation. Directed by Isaac Drandic (Noongar), this uplifting world premiere production celebrates friendship, culture and the world’s last Tasmanian Tiger.
Winning program
Intimate, joyous and searching, Humans 2.0 sees the performers find redemptive power in strength and fiercely celebrate what it means to be human.
Rounding out the headline program is H.M.S. Pinafore – director Kate Gaul’s wild reimagining of Gilbert and Sullivan’s masterpiece that puts a 21st-century spin on the song-strewn mockery of class, patriotism and the rise of unqualified people to positions of power, which will play at Riverside Theatres.
Sydney Festival’s Blak Out program once again foregrounds First Nations voices with stories and performances from across Australia and New Zealand. Featuring Sunshine Super Girl, Bangarra’s Spirit and Hide the Dog, the 2021 Blak Out program is a richly diverse collection of dance, theatre, music, visual art and performance.
Returning for the third time and cementing a new tradition of cleansing and consideration, The Vigil returns to Barangaroo Reserve, offering an opportunity to gather together and experience a night of performance and reflection on the eve of Australia Day. Taking place the morning after, the WugulOra ceremony celebrates the strength and resilience of Australia’s First Nations peoples through dance and song.
A key annual event in Sydney’s cultural calendar, the festival is a time to celebrate the talents of an incredible range of world-class artists and performers.
The program will not only engage you, it will surprise and delight in innovative, unusual and unforeseen ways through theatre, music, cabaret or dance!
DETAILS BOX
https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au
https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/hms-pinafore
https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/humans-two
https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/sunshine-super-girl
