Festival Round Up
Festival time can be so overwhelming in Kaurna Country. With so much on, how do you choose what to see? Let us help!
We’ve rounded up a bunch of incredible shows featuring our friends and communities to help you make the most of festival season.
Mga gamit ng isang makata By Matcho Makata
Nexus Arts Gallery, Lion Arts Centre, Cnr North Tce & Morphett St, Kaurna Country
thursday 15 FEBruary — friday 15 MARch
‘Gamit’ is a reverse ekphrastic look into the migrant mindset of Filipinx diaspora living on Kaurna land through the lens of a poet.
Matcho Makata focuses on how Filipinx creatively solve everyday problems by utilizing items for alternate purposes. Matcho has focused on crafting their artwork through entering Filipino households to explore, document and collect remaining clutter. Matcho considers what it means to come from a migrant mindset of needing to survive, to constantly realign purposes and what the limits could be. The exhibition includes pieces of visual poetry/in response to objects that might be deemed past their utility such as leftover wood. In ‘Gamit’ discarded doors from Filipinx homes become supports for different forms of creativty and cultural (re)production.
The artists acknowledge this work was created on Kaurna Country.
Confessions of a Boba Liberalist
The Yurt at The Courtyard of Curiosities, Migration Museum, 82 Kintore Ave, Adelaide, Kaurna Country
Friday 16 February — Sunday 17 March
Nita has some things she needs to get off her chest.
Using anecdotes from her own life experiences, come on a conversational journey through Juanita Navas-Nguyen's relationship with her own cultural identity. From the school yard at lunch time to having drinks with friends, she's often found herself navigating what it means to exist in a predominantly white society as a Person of Colour? Asian? Latina? Bi-Racial? Does it even matter what she thinks? Maybe it’s the way the world perceives her that shapes the way she perceives herself...
Bubble tea, K-pop, a few arguments with people over how to pronounce the names of cultural foods, and a bid to prove she is in fact NOT a Boba Liberal, Confessions of a Boba Liberalist is an answer (or not) to the dreaded question: 'Where are you from?'.
Use the code ‘BobaAddict’ to secure your discounted $20 ticket.
Caught In Between
Studio 166 at Goodwood Theatre and Studios, 166 Goodwood Road, Goodwood, Kaurna Country
Thursday 22 February — Sunday 3 March
Centred around the Asian-Australian experience, this multi-disciplinary theatrical work by Danielle Lim explores what it means to be a migrant and exist in two worlds at once. This journey will combine original soundscapes, video projections, and live storytelling, to blur the lines between Malaysian and Australian cultures.
Join Dani as she travels through her memories, objects and time, uncovering emotions, challenges, and decisions that shape her life.
Use the code ‘BUKITBINTANG’ to secure your discounted $20 ticket.
The Heart May Or May Not Go On
Studio 166 at Goodwood Theatre and Studios, 166 Goodwood Road, Goodwood, Kaurna Country
Thursday 22 February — Sunday 3 March
Have you ever been so f**ked over by life that you have felt as if your heart may not actually go on? Have you ever wondered why so many people are out to get you, only to realise that YOU might actually be the problem?
After a life changing diagnosis Taylor, with the help of Sam Lau, will reflect on life so far to try and make sense of the chaos through dark comedy, storytelling and original songs.
No one is safe, not even her...
Guuranda
Her Majesty's Theatre, Grote Street, Kaurna Country, Adelaide
Thursday 29 February — Sunday 3 March
Welcome to Narungga Country. You’ve been warned.
Guuranda is a monumental new theatre work telling the Narungga Creation stories of South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula from Narungga/Kaurna theatre-maker Jacob Boehme.
Commissioned by Adelaide Festival, Guuranda has been created by a collective of First Nations artists, Narungga Elders and non-Indigenous artists. It is written and directed by Jacob Boehme with artwork by Narungga visual artist Kylie O’Loughlin and sung by Narungga songwoman Sonya Rankine and songman Warren Milera, supported by the Narungga Family Choir.
Taking its title from the Narungga language name for the Yorke Peninsula, Guuranda tells of a people and place that teach us about being human, drawing on history to speak into the present. These ancient stories are not myths, nor are they old, quaint tales. These stories are vital, violent, delightful and dangerous. They are stories to charm, shock and instruct audiences of all ages.
Effortlessly weaving together theatre, song, puppetry, dance and visual art, Guuranda shares stories that offer insight and balance, with chaos and death ever-present. You must look, listen and tread carefully.
A Girl
Star Theatres, 143 to 145 Sir Donald Bradman Dr, Hilton, Kaurna Country
Friday 1 March — Tuesday 5 March
A woman’s life changes after the news of her pregnancy and she must choose to remain a wife, a daughter-in-law or to be a mother. A Girl is a show about women empowerment and equality.
The Bacchae
Chaffey Theatre, Theatre Lane, Renmark, Meru Country and, Holden Street Theatres, 32-34 Holden Street, Hindmarsh, Kaurna Country
Saturday 2 March — Saturday 16 March
One day a team of queer, neurodivergent country teens picked up this 2000-year-old script and said, "we want to do this play because it is gay and chaotic."
And Fleur Kilpatrick, award-winning playwright and director said "are you sure? People get torn to pieces."
And they said "Mood."
So Dionysos has come to town. And you better party. Or else.
Dirty Energy
House & Grounds at Carclew, Carclew House, 11 Jeffcott St, North Adelaide, Kaurna Country
Thursday 7 March — Sunday 10 March
“A third glass of wine, town, bars, drugs, home, sleep for however many hours I can before I wake up and do it all again.
Hours on feet: 12 - 14 on average.
Hours sleeping: 5 - 6 on average.
Hours drinking: 2 - 4 on average.
Abuse: 50% of the customers I serve.
Pay: minimum wage.
Why do I do it: absolutely no f*cking clue.”
Dirty Energy delves into the brutal world of the hospitality industry through the lives of Bast, Avi, and Clay. Set in a modern dining restaurant that masks its toxicity with casual elegance, the play reveals the harsh realities of the industry. Overworked, underpaid, overtired on minimum wage — the crew use alcohol, drugs, banter and each other to survive.
The Totally Unofficial and Classified Guide to Surviving the Impossible
Carclew House, 11 Jeffcott St, North Adelaide, Kaurna Country
Wednesday 13 March — Saturday 16 March
"I had a dream that I killed someone, like — violently murdered them." And so the show begins.
Our young artists take you on a truthful and hilarious journey through the teenage experience, from debating the morality of the Scream franchise, to playing Barbie. The Totally Unofficial and Classified Guide to Surviving the Impossible is part verbatim theatre, part reflection on mental health, teenage identity, and the power of friendship.
Developed with D'faces troupe, written by Michal Hughes.
Brown Women Comedy
Nexus Arts, Lion Arts Centre, Cnr North Tce & Morphett St, Kaurna Country
Tuesday 5 March — Sunday 17 March
Laugh your heart out to the largest line-up of award winning besharam (shameless) Indian, Pakistani and South Asian comedians in Australia. No topic is too taboo, from growing up brown in Australia to getting divorced and disowned thrice, these women won't be holding back.
Your parents probably won't approve as you trauma bond watching these six women turn family expectations into comedy gold.
Featuring Daizy Maan, Leela Varghese, Kushi Venkatesh, Yasmin Kassim, Amna Bee, Sashi Perera, Shyaire Ganglani, Aarti Vincent and Kru Harale, Brown Women Comedy sold out at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with over 600 people in attendance, so get in quick!
The Tumor Show
Chandelier Room at Electric Dreams @ Freemasons Hall, 254 North Terrace, Adelaide, Kaurna Country
Wednesday 21 February — Sunday 3 March
Jill Blewett Playwright's Award winner Peter Beaglehole's comedy about resilience, the end of the world, and his spinal tumour. Like a self-help meeting that goes off the rails, this is the story of finding joy in the horror of carrying on. Full of existential whimsy, this is an intimate, funny tale of staring into the void, then flipping it off.