 |
| Walkabout |
Thursday 18 August - Sunday 28 August
The world premiere season of Richard J Frankland's stage and screen response to the Nicolas Roeg film.
This production of
Walkabout offers the opportunity for a unique presentation of multiple art forms, fusing video, film, music and performance. Through a re-telling and analysis of Nicholas Roeg's
Walkabout, Richard J Frankland examines the legacy of theatrical and cinematic representations of Indigenous Australians by white filmmakers and others.
In
Chamber Made's Walkabout, the stage is set as an abstracted film studio. Film cameras operate on stage in real time, with live video mixing with the performance. Rushes from the original film combine with documentary footage, including interviews with cast members from the original film, and insights from prominent Indigenous commentators. On stage, live instrumentalists provide musical accompaniment, as well as stage and screen action.
Nicolas Roeg's classic 1970's film,
Walkabout, holds an iconic position in Australia's culture, and was one of the first Australian films to deal explicitly with intimacy between Black and White. The film is a parable of black and white relations, a work of beauty and misunderstanding, a Romeo and Juliet story of innocence lost, and an ode to our sense of identity and place within the Australian landscape.
In the original motion picture, a young Aboriginal rescues two white urban children abandoned by their father in the desert. The youth commits suicide after his ceremonial bid for marriage is rejected. Richard J Frankland's reinterpretation sets about to redress the European romanticism of the unknowable 'noble savage' and the silencing of the Indigenous voice. What becomes clear is not just the tragic chasm between two cultures, but also the fundamental nature of this misunderstanding, and its continued expression in contemporary black/white relations in Australia.
This is the first partnership between ACMI and Chamber Made Opera, Australia's leading development and production house for contemporary opera and music-theatre. They have produced over forty performance seasons across four continents.
Chamber Made's Walkabout showcases the unique technological potential of ACMI Cinemas for moving image experimentation.
Presented by Chamber Made Opera in association with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Chamber Made Opera is supported by the Australia Council, Arts Victoria, Community Support Fund Victoria, City of Melbourne.
