9 March, 2005
\nMurray Bramwell<\/p>\n
Emily Loves to Bounce
\nInspired by the books of Stephen Michael King
\nPatch Theatre Company
\nOdeon Theatre, Adelaide
\n9 March. Tickets $15 – $7.
\nBookings BASS 131 246.
\nUntil 19 March.<\/p>\n
The Green Sheep
\nBased on the book by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek
\nWindmill Productions.
\nThe Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
\n 9 March. Tickets $ 15 – $7
\nBookings BASS 131 246.
\nUntil 19 March.<\/p>\n
The Come Out 2005 Australian Festival for Young People has been a biennial fixture in Adelaide since 1974 and in that time, thanks to the continuing commitment of artists, administrators, teachers and funding agencies, it not only showcases new work, it provides a much-needed focus and forum for youth arts. <\/p>\n
It may be a platitude to say that young audiences deserve the best art but it doesn\u2019t make it any less true. Over two weeks Come Out offers an arts festival featuring high calibre work from around the country for audiences ranging from wide-eyed pre-schoolers to world weary adolescents. <\/p>\n
Adelaide\u2019s Patch Theatre Company pitches its work to four to eight year olds and their latest production, Emily Loves to Bounce, is further evidence of their invention, energy and flair. Although based on the Stephen Michael King picture books (as previous Patch shows have dramatised books by Pamela Allen) their themes of friendship, creativity and exuberance are re-imagined with such simple props as white cardboard boxes, exercise balls, light cubes and shadow puppets. <\/p>\n
The players – actors Astrid Pill and John Bode and musicians Zoe Barry and Belinda Gelhert – sing, dance, joke and surprise as boxes appear to move by themselves, white paper lanterns dance and coloured balls invade the stage like over-sized smarties. Director Dave Brown, designer Geoff Cobham and the Patch team have not only given Emily (and other King characters such as Henry and Amy ) plenty of theatrical bounce, they have artfully harmonised the production\u2019s many elements, including, as a closing benediction, a hummed rendition of Beethoven\u2019s Song of Joy. <\/p>\n
With The Green Sheep, Windmill Productions director Cate Fowler reminds us of the theatre that is simple storytelling. And there is no more familiar advocate of its virtues than writer and literacy expert Mem Fox. Using Judy Horacek\u2019s delightfully earthy and zany illustrations as large cut-outs, actors Noni Dunstone, Rick Magarey, Guy Peterson and multi-tasked musician Fleur Green narrate – to a sheep-pen full of littlies and their minders – Mem Fox\u2019s playfully cadenced procession of blue sheep, red sheep, near sheep and far sheep – and yes, finally, in its iridescent manger, the gree-een sheep !<\/p>\n
Come Out continues until March 19 with, among others, brand new productions from Cirkidz, Fresh Track Theatre , Denmark\u2019s Baggard Teatret, Riverland Youth and Vitalstatistix, Restless Dance Company and the Spare Parts and Polyglot Puppet companies. <\/p>\n
\u201cPower in a sheep pen\u201d The Australian, March 11, 2005, p.14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
9 March, 2005 Murray Bramwell Emily Loves to Bounce Inspired by the books of Stephen Michael King Patch Theatre Company Odeon Theatre, Adelaide 9 March. Tickets $15 – $7. Bookings BASS 131 246. Until 19 March. The Green Sheep Based on the book by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek Windmill Productions. The Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 9 March. Tickets $ 15 – $7 Bookings BASS 131 246. Until 19 March. The Come Out 2005 Australian Festival for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-australian-texts","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":783,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}