6 March 2002
Murray Bramwell

Shedding Light .
Australian films commissioned by Adelaide Festival
and SBS Independent. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide.
Until 7 March. Regional South Australian tour until 14 March
Contact Country Arts SA (08) 8444 0400 for details.

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The Adelaide Festival films have always been one of Peter Sellars’ pet ideas, and they have turned out to be among his best. With various funding, including $1.5m from the Festival, Shedding Light Director and SBS Independent executive, Bridget …

3 March, 2002
Murray Bramwell

The Career Highlights of Mamu
by Trevor Jamieson and Scott Rankin.
Black Swan Theatre Company. The Playhouse.
Adelaide Festival Centre. Until 5 March.
Tickets $ 48, $32 SPU. BASS 13 246.

Co-written and narrated by Aboriginal performer Trevor Jamieson, The Career Highlights of Mamu is an epic work, because much has happened to his kinship family from the spinifex country of Tjuntjuntjara, just over the border between South and Western Australia. Mamu, the spirit demon …

2002 Adelaide Festival
Previewed by Murray Bramwell

The call came late on Friday afternoon for the briefing at noon on Sunday 6 January. The much-awaited revamp of the Adelaide Festival program had finally taken place, less than two months from the Opening Ceremony. It is a sunny day outside but our tiny media contingent of not more than a dozen people is led, in somewhat clandestine fashion, through the dressing room catacombs to the stage of the Playhouse which has …

2002

International Performances
Previewed by Murray Bramwell

When, not just the wheels, but the doors, panels and mudguards began falling off the Adelaide Festival program it was fortuitous that Arts Projects Australia has been on hand to provide a seven point Plan B. In fact, the varied music and performance events being presented in Adelaide and other centres from late this month through to early March, had already been offered for inclusion in the original Festival line-up and politely declined. …

2001
Murray Bramwell

The past two months have been like a spill of dominoes for the Adelaide Festival. From the debacle over the Hitler poster, late in October, to the dismal program launch, days later, which revealed, finally, how empty the larder had become and how many projects had failed – like so many baby turtles on the beach – to reach maturity. To make matters worse, Artistic Director Peter Sellars was unavailable for the launch, neither as support to …

Festival Notes

Murray Bramwell

With daylight saving over and the nights, as they say, drawing in, the Adelaide Festival, just two weeks after being squeezed back in its box, seems rather like a dream. But it was not. We do not but slumber here. It happened, and with considerable distinction.

There are a number of factors which made Robyn Archer’s 1998 event such a success. The first is that again, the festival captured the attention and enthusiasm of the city. …