I'm sitting in the Air New Zealand Business Class Lounge at Sydney International Airport waiting to board my flight to San Francisco. I'm greatly looking forward to sitting on a plane for the next 14 hours. It's been a hectic, but excellent, month filled with Sydney Festival events. And in my free time, I went to the beach. Happy Summer!
January 9, Al Green, The Domain
The festival kicked off with Festival First Night. I had a picnic in the Domain with Will and Kylie and a friend of theirs while we waited to see Al Green. Somewhat of a disappointment. He spent most of the show complaining about how little time they'd given him.
January 14, Optimism, Drama Theatre (Opera House)
In conjunction with the start of our Sydney Theatre Company subscription (under 30!), Dave and I went to Optimism. Optimism is Tom Wright's Candide adaptation. It was over the top and a lot of fun. It was a very close telling of Voltaire's work and having read it both in English and French in high school, I enjoyed seeing it performed. The Candide was excellent and we especially enjoyed his moments in "front of the curtain" interacting with the audience.
January 16, Bale de Rua, Concert Hall (Opera House)
Then came Bale de Rua with Margaret, Dave, and Paul. It was, as Ben and Anna said, good but not great. I had such high expectations - Brazilian street dance. Perhaps it was too big a venue or perhaps the audience wasn't into it enough. It just didn't have the energy to engross me fully.
January 20, Giselle, Carriageworks
The four of us went to Giselle - an Irish dance/theatre production - a few days later (on Paul's birthday). This was my favorite Festival show. It was a mostly-male cast, but the men-playing-women never seemed totally ridiculous or even a little strange. Much of it was narrated by a man on a telephone pole and so the players came and went switching roles and costumes frequently. Though most of the dance was modern/interpretive, there was some line dancing which made me long for my cowboy boots and Nashville!
January 21, Camera Obscura, Beck's Festival Garden
Margaret and I went to see Camera Obscura at Beck's Festival Garden outside the Hyde Park Barracks. I hadn't been to a stand-up and sway concert for a long time and really enjoyed it. I did keep wishing they were Belle and Sebastian though.
January 27, Medeski Martin & Wood, City Recital Hall
Medeski Martin & Wood opened with something that brought only the word "discord" to mind. They had a sound very different from the CD I've been listening to for years. I really liked the two last songs they played, but much of the beginning and middle was too "noisy" for me.
So that was Festival 2010. There was more I missed (like Six Characters in Search of an Author which Reen recommended), but I just couldn't manage any more! My next task is to get the Paul Taylor Dance Company at Festival 2011. Any idea how I do that?
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