Murray Bramwell talks with Artistic Director, Ian Scobie about the challenges of planning a music festival during COVID. 21 Feb 2021
The last time I interviewed Ian Scobie about WOMADelaide it was late January last year and Kangaroo Island was burning down. The bushfires -which engulfed huge sections of the country, sending serious smoke haze into the cities - were on everyone’s mind. Scobie’s company APA was running a national tour for the Italian composer, Ludovico Einaudi, who was due to perform at the Myer Music Bowl. It was uncertain to happen because of poor air conditions. Fortunately, the smoke dispersed and the concert went ahead.
But nothing matches 2021. As Scobie describes it:
“It’s been very, very challenging really. I have to say that since working in Festivals-land since 1984, you come across the usual challenges – air traffic control for Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata at the Quarry, or suddenly finding a tented venue has a third of the capacity it is supposed to have.
“But this is a whole kind of other degree of uncertainty – which, of course, the whole world is dealing with, it’s not just poor us. It’s the constant uncertainty that’s so different. When we found out we couldn’t get a permit to do the full scale event we had to ask ourselves – ‘Do we do anything, or just cancel?’
“The decision came very late in the year. We were meeting with SA Health in some detail from June 2020 onwards and we were backwards and forwards discussing ways of dealing with the situation and avoiding over-crowding. We were maintaining parallel programs - an international one if things got better, and then an Australian one. By late August we thought international was unlikely so by September it was going to be a program sourced within Australia. We had that arranged, with the diversity one would expect - culturally and musically.
“It was then not until the second week in October when, after more back and forth to SA Health, they said – ‘Mmmm. No. We just think the combination of the duration, from noon to midnight, and the multi-stage format with audiences’ crossing over…’ It wasn’t something they were able to support.
“We just had to call it. So then we had to find out from SA Health what maximum event number we could have, and addressing their concerns meant we came to our decision – to have one stage, individual reserve seats, individual tickets not day passes. That meant contact tracing for Person X sitting in C 27 on Friday night or Saturday B 36. The QR app was not introduced yet. “
Scobie consulted with other event organisers such as the Adelaide Oval management –
“They were very helpful and keen to have us use their venue and it is a fabulous stadium. But it’s an oval. It is not really part of the ethos of the WOMADelaide event. Which is how we ended up at King Rodney Park.
“Once we set parameters we had three days to get back to SA Health with a plan for six thousand seats, spaced in a version of checkerboard, a single fixed stage and operating hours confined from 6 pm to midnight. The duration of people’s exposure is reduced and we know who and where they all are. “
At first Scobie considered using Elder Park but it was impossible to establish good sightlines for the size of the crowd. The same held for Botanic Park – the home of WOMADelaide since it began in 1992. Since it is a park full of trees there was nowhere that a seating rig could allow an unimpeded view for more than three thousand which, considering the overheads, was not financially viable. So Scobie and Mark Muller, the production manager, drove around the city looking for possible sites.
“We came across King Rodney Park – bounded by Dequetteville Terrace, Wakefield Road and Bartels Road. It contains an arena, has a fringe of trees, and parkland all around. So you have a sense of arrival and enclosure. It is the Christian Brothers College oval which is owned by the City of Adelaide and leased to the school. It is maintained for sport but open to the public. We have divided the area into zones – two thousand people through each of three gates, with six thousand the capacity. It will have a park feeling and we wanted a sense of enclosure. It will be a different concept but I did have one longtime WOMADelaide supporter say to me – ‘I’m so looking forward to having a seat!’ “
Scobie is pleased with the venue and the arrangements.
“I thought we had an obligation to run WOMAD in some form or other. I was opposed to presenting something like a single concert inside an auditorium that bore no resemblance to the event. I also had a concern that we needed to provide employment for the artists. Here we are in the middle of a pandemic and the arts are the first hit and the most heavily impacted – I think, even more than tourism.”
The 2021 four night concert program, developed by Associate Director Annette Tripodi and her team, is the tip of an organisational planning iceberg that has been busy all year. The 25th WOMADelaide, in its 29th year and one of the city’s most enduring events, will be remembered by the staff as a massive contingency exercise, a carefully constructed framework of events that could have been, but never happened. Scobie observes:
“Annette has done an amazing job. There is a full Australian program that’s never seen the light of day – which would have been terrific. But planning like this may be the future. I do hope we are gong to have a full scale event in Botanic Park in 2022, whether it has an international component, who knows? Next year will be a bit of a Groundhog Day with the same uncertainties. We will plan parallel Australian and international programs and see how it goes. Ziggy Marley is keen to come, if we have internationals, he will be in it!”
The Friday night line-up opens, as WOMAD has done often before, with the participation of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. They will be accompanying Lior, another festival favourite, in his performance of Compassion, a song cycle composed and conducted by Nigel Westlake. Commissioned for the Sydney Symphony, Compassion incorporates texts and themes from both Islam and Judaism. Of the project Westlake has said - “We have tried to imbue the ancient texts with a contemporary interpretation, adhering to the purity of a single voice and orchestra. “
Also appearing is Archie Roach, whose classic album Charcoal Lane featured the anthem of the Stolen Generation, Took the Children Away. His music has been re-released in recent years with the box set, Creation, and a remastered version of Charcoal Lane. His performance will be the first of many over four nights, highlighting indigenous culture and issues.
Completing the night’s list is the excellent Sarah Blasko whose ARIA nomination and Triple J Album of the Year, As Day Follows Night, has celebrated its tenth anniversary with a re-issue plus bonus tracks. It sounds fresher than ever and her set will be a great note to close on.
Saturday night is an especially hot ticket and is already heavily subscribed. It opens with young Indigenous rappers MRLN x RKM (aka. Marlon Motlop and RullaKelly-Mansell), new talents sponsored by WOMADelaide and the NSS Academy.
Next is the near legendary Vika and Linda and their outstanding band, and we will be reminded what a strong repertoire they have gathered over a brilliant career. Their ample compilation album, Akilotoa, is impressive, not only for its range and appeal, but also because they are some of the finest interpreters of the songs of long-time collaborator, Paul Kelly.
Headliners on Saturday are Midnight Oil. As Ian Scobie observes:
“Midnight Oil have been regularly on our books and we check them out to ask –what are you doing this time? They played WOMADelaide in 1997 and Peter Garrett has returned a couple of times to Planet Talks. He has fond memories of that particular gig. They also performed at WOMAD UK going back a way. So there’s always been a connection. We had been talking for 18 months to two years out. They were planned for this year. Nobody thought it would be like this, but it was great to have it in prospect. People thinking – ‘Oh God this is not a traditional WOMAD! ‘Instead, they see it’s Midnight Oil and they are also doing their Makarrata Live project on the closing night. “
Sunday night was scheduled to open with Zambian-born singer, Sampa the Great, but she cancelled all Australian commitments because she had travelled to Botswana and, due to COVID border restrictions, could not return. Instead, two emerging talents will perform. Pitjantjatjara/Torres Strait Islander artist , Miiesha, winner of a 2020 ARIA best Soul/R&B for her album Nyaaringu, will feature, along with PNG-born Melbourne artist, Kaiit, 2019 ARIA winner for her single Miss Shiney.
The amazingly multi-talented Tash Sultana tops the card. Their debut album Flow State, double platinum single Jungle and the multi-platinum Notion EP have all been streamed hundreds of millions of times, some say up to a billion. Tash Sultana has a massive global following and they will also be featuring material from this month’s release, Terra Firma.
Monday’s program opens with Adelaide band Siberian Tiger, featuring Bree Tranter and Chris Panousakis, who released their EP Last Dance last year. They will also feature a string quartet. The Teskey Brothers – Josh and Sam - plus Brendon Love and Liam Gough formed in Melbourne in 2008. Since then they have added keyboards and horns and have begun the most sought-after soul/blues live act in the country. Their excellent album, Run Home Slow won ARIA for Best Blues/Roots album. Last year’s release, Live at the Forum is a glimpse of their presence on stage. Their show will be quite something.
And to close this one-of-a-kind WOMADelaide, Midnight Oil will perform the world premier performance of Makaratta Live, a concert featuring prominent First Nations artists and raising public awareness of The Uluru Statement. The Oils will perform familiar hits connected to Indigenous Reconciliation as well new songs, Gadigal Land, Change the Date, and Terror Australia. It will be a significant occasion – and a chance to affirm the values of the Uluru initiative which have been shamefully deflected and ignored by the present government.
After all the speculation and logistical modelling, Scobie is hoping that much of his team’s time-consuming anticipatory work will not be necessary. There won’t be interstate lockdowns, or last minute border closures, or quarantine emergencies. The artists will all arrive in time for COVID tests to be cleared, and hotel floors will be sealed off for their greater safety. But as Scobie acknowledges –
“It all rests with SA Health and their committee. Everyone is doing their best but no-one can give you a guarantee. Months ago a colleague said to me – ‘Who knows? No-one. That’s who!’ “
So, says Ian Scobie with a wry smile, I keep saying – “It’s going to be great. “
WOMADelaide 2021 Sunset Concert Series runs from March 5-8 at King Rodney Park , Wakefield Road, Adelaide.
Murray Bramwell
When: 5 to 8 Mar
Where: King Rodney Park
Bookings: womadelaide.com.au
The man is indomitable. The only thing that Dave Brown may have failed at is retirement. He lasted about a minute after passing over the reins of our celebrated children’s theatre company, Patch, to the literally luminous new director, Geoff Cobham. Brown had been some 30 years developing children’s theatre for and with Patch. His name was synonymous with the company. And so was his heart.
The wrench seemed to take him by surprise.
“When I left Patch, I couldn’t imagine a life without ‘theatre-making for children’,” he declares.
And so it came to pass that a new children’s theatre movement came into being.
The PaperBoats.
Nothing was done in a hurry. This difference between Brown’s old life and this new one is deadlines. Brown has discovered the luxury of contemplative creativity, of taking time to develop projects and to create partnerships. The PaperBoats has been several years in development.
Interestingly, it is his admiration for former Playschool star, Noni Hazelhurst which underscores this new creative impetus.
He cites:
"Kids are being bombarded, on a daily basis, by the popular media’s increasing focus on commercial values rather than creative ones. Millions of dollars are poured into making junk palatable.”
"She put it beautifully when she said; “Children can be encouraged to grow, develop and participate in the world if we expose them to beauty, truth and the power of their imagination.”
" I reckon quality children’s theatre focuses on creative values; values that Noni Hazelhurst identifies so beautifully,” he adds.
Of course Brown also has a background in teaching. He studied science at university and taught chemistry before he slipped into his destined role teaching and generating theatre.
He established Jumbuck Youth Music Theatre Company before becoming artistic director of Patch.
Now in the world of ThePaperBoats, the Hazelhurst ideas have become core - as has Country Arts SA which was been a key partner.
“It supports the curation of quality arts experiences for early childhood audiences,” he enthuses.
Partnerships is, indeed, the new keyword.
"I wanted to develop a co-creating partnership platform that could use the existing infra-structures of partnership organisations rather than create yet another infra-structure of our own”, he explains.
"In so doing, I wanted partnering artists to be open to sharing their work in a “creative commons” way…. which does not happen much in theatre and I was inspired to some extent by the online arts production model created by the hit record folk. Check out their page here.
And so it came to pass that, steadily over time, new co-productions have been emerging - Especially on Birthdays (Australia and Singapore), Gimme Please (USA) and When the Mirror Bird Sings (Australia and Singapore community artists project).
It’s extraordinarily complex insofar as so many organisations and individuals have been involved in the creative process.”
Around 80 artistes, Brown estimates. All providing different facets if the process - and there are more co-shows in the pipeline.
It’s a triumph of a Community Sharing Agreement which, says Brown, continues to evolve.
He lists just some of his partners: AC Arts, University of Texas, Victoria University, Wellington, NZ, Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Marion Cultural Centre, Country ArtsSA, ArtsSA, Boat Rocker Entertainment (Jim Weiner - NY Agent for Patch and GOM and Key Partner of the PaperBoats) WilderMusic, Artground Singapore and AFC.
Brown cites Especially on Birthdays as the best example of the co-creative development process.
He explains: "We made the work in Australia alongside the creation of Gimme Please in the US and shared our animating idea, design palette, our processes and content across each other’s creative developments which deeply influenced each other’s outcomes - and yet the two works ended up very differently.
"The first through-composed music score for Especially on Birthdays was written by the Zephyr Quartet and voiceROM. Then two Singaporean performers came to Australia to learn the physical score of the work (a non-verbal visual theatre work) and presented alternating performances as part of our Commonwealth Games season. They then returned to Singapore and remounted the work - with a new Singaporean music score by Stan&Soap and a re-interpreted design, for Singaporean audiences.
"Then Matthew Wilder (composer of Disney’s Mulan, singer/songwriter of 80s mega-hit Break My Stride, and brother to Jim Weiner) wrote a new US music score for Especially on Birthdays which was presented at our season of the show in Atlanta alongside the US production of Gimme Please.”
Plans for Especially on Birthdays to do a major tour of China have now been well and truly scuttled thanks to the Cornoavirus pandemic. Similarly, The Space season of When the Mirror Bird Sings scheduled for April is in limbo as the world waits for life to return to normal.
Brown,of course, will not have the grass growing under his feet since taking time over projects has been his retirement luxury.
Not that he has wasted a minute.
He spent 2019 learning how to program lights and then proceeded to design the lighting for the new work,
“That’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years but never had the time,” he says.
Massive amounts of work were dedicated to the new creation, devising a narrative thread which would ensure that children would be engaged, developing a new colour palette with designer Meg Wilson, rehearsing and honing. Thousands of hours, Brown estimates.
“And, I can say that there was never a dull or difficult moment,” he says.
When the Mirror Bird Sings features music based on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and is described as a spirited modern fairy-tale. It is about wondrous birds with mirror-ball eggs and, thematically, it is the age-old struggle between good and evil.
"Responses to the show have been quite emotional especially from adults”, Brown enthuses.
"Kids absolutely love participating in the piece and they are hushed during the scenes of betrayal and redemption. It’s quite a dramatic and serious journey for young audiences - who are usually offered fairly light dramatics.”
When the Mirror Bird Sings targets 3 to 8 year olds and has been created to work both in high tech theatre venues and in low-tech community halls and schools.
Samela Harris
When: Rescheduled to 12 Sep
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
As you let the fantastical throbbing of Orang Orang’s mighty drumming ensemble thrill your core in Botanic Park, spare a thought for the quiet suffering of the drummers.
Drums are big and heavy. They are a serious burden when it comes to travel. And that means expense.
So, reveals Orang Orang Drum Theatre’s tour manager, Damien Leow, the drummers themselves have to travel light.
“They must reduce their luggage, only to costumes,” he says.
“That means just 7 kg personal luggage. Yes. It is hard for women. There is some negotiation for women.”
WOMADelaide has helped the Malaysian group in the logistics of getting to Adelaide for their performances in Botanic Park.
“Air freight, documentation, quarantine and customs, sending all the documents” says Leow.
“Australia is very strict with quarantine.
“Our drum skins are made from cow and goat. Some drums are durian wood.”
For the Orang Orang Drum Theatre’s 24 Festive Drums ensemble there are eight full-time team members and twelve part-timers aged between 21 and 25.
Their drumming skills come from deep in the Malaysian Chinese heritage, linking back to the Lion Dance.
Leow explains that the name Orang Orang derives from both Chinese and Malay words meaning people and also in Chinese “ren ren ren” which means “public” or “community”.
“So it is a community for work and performance,” he says, adding that “orang” also could mean “scarecrow".
“The name makes for good interaction with people. It is a good talking point.”
So do the 24 Festive Drums with history going back to 1988 in Johor Bahru. They represent 24 festivals in the lunar calendar of the Chinese agricultural community, and that agricultural cycle is thousands of years old.
“The ancient wisdom of agriculture,” says Leow.
So the songs of the drums hark back to ancestors and farming styles and even to individual characters. And Orang Orang choreographers create movement to illustrate them.
They create songs to create characters, says Leow, songs which are inspired by people we might see daily, but reflecting their distinctive characteristics, unique aspects of them;
sometimes maybe an old man, a worker from the regions who is working in the city. We think of music for him.”
Orang Orang Drum Theatre’s work delves deeply into the breadth of Malaysian culture. It is alive and evolving.
Leow mentions “lagu walk” which reflects walking to different regions. Herein the musicians can depict their origins and projects.
Thus does Orang Orang Drum Theatre spread its beat to encompass the very, very old and the emerging new. And it does so not only with music and dance theatre. Not only but also, there are different instruments and new collaborations.
Leow is excited to talk about Rosemary Joel, an exquisite singer from Sarawak and player of the very delicate-sounding stringed instrument called a sape.
“She has a very beautiful voice,” says Leow. “Last year we went to her home for cultural exchange and she was our teacher, so we now can include Sarawak folk songs.”
The Orang Orang Drum Theatre company was founded in 2013 to explore the disciplines of drum and theatre. It since has been very busy travelling the world and spreading its Malaysian cultural richness.
Now, travelling heavy with all its drums, light in personal luggage and huge in ideas and talent and cultural imperative, it has made it to WOMADelaide.
Orang Orang Drum theatre have sessions on Saturday at 1pm, Sunday at 3pm and Monday at 1pm.
Samela Harris
When: 6 to 9 March
Where: Botanic Park
Bookings: womadelaide.com.au
Is it bravery or chutzpah that brings a flow of astonishing solo performers to our city each year?
If there’s a medal of merit on offer to any of them, Gavin Robertson should be at the front of the receiving line.
He traipses the world with nothing more than an olde world dress coat, a notepad and a torrent of talent.
He’s a loner, a solo performer who lives on his ability to win admiration from complete strangers.
He achieved that with his persona of the travelling bard, Greg Byron. #StandupPoet
He achieved five-star reviews in 2018 and 2019 for his performances at the Treasury in 1860.
Now he returns bringing that funny show of clever rhymes and perspicacious thoughts to the cool tunnels of the Treasury for just nine special shows.
This season is limited because multi-functioning Robertson is also segueing into the character of James Bond. Quite the extreme contrast.
He is inhabiting the Bond skin at the Bakehouse Theatre in a show called Bond - An Unauthorised Parody.
He’s cunningly pipping the release of the new Bond movie. Putting it into the shade, perhaps?
“There was a time before the Daniel Craig reboot where movies themselves were almost a parody,” he explains. “That’s where I’m coming from.”
He’s had this show on the road for a while, so it is well run-in for Adelaide.
Robertson says he was much amused to discover that the Bond film, No Time to Die, “basically has Bond coming out of retirement, which is the same premise as my narrative.”
“Mine more to do with my age and fitness level!
“I’ve been creating physical theatre for thirty years or so, but I thought I should acknowledge I’m no Daniel Craig! Having said that, I play a pretty sexy Bond girl.”
The most curious thing about the Robertson Bond creation is that it is not based on hard research, but quite the opposite, if one is to believe the actor.
“I ignored the books,” he asserts.
“People assume I spent hours watching the movies but actually I didn’t watch any. I wanted the clichés to be what we all know, not a nerd-fest of trivial!"
He extrapolates: “The common ground for fertile spoofs is films that we all have in common. They’re pretty formulaic really and don’t forget, before the Daniel Craig reboot (when they really went up a notch) they were almost parodies of themselves; Pierce Brosnan in an invisible car given to him by John Cleese?
“I hope they’re embarrassed in retrospect? And Roger Moore got the worst scripts.”
Robertson takes Bond anything but seriously. He can be a bit scathing.
“I think he’s irrelevant, to be honest,” he declares.
“He’s always been an arm of the British Empire mentality.
“Frankly, I’m appalled at the rise of the political Right, seemingly globally - even in Australia - and that nationalistic tunnel vision is a step backwards for inclusivity and tolerance, neither of which Bond is renowned for.
“I think at best he’s a good action movie catalyst. The show is pure escapist stupidity.”
Bond will have twelve performances at the Bakehouse, a venue Robertson has chosen to give himself a less pop-up and more traditional theatre environment. Greg Byron, however, will be lurking in tunnels.
Gavin Robertson comes to the Adelaide Fringe as a super one-man entrepreneur, not only with two solo shows in two high profile comic guises but also as his own booking agent, publicist, writer, director, producer, costumier, et al.
Interestingly, Robertson has one more string to this busy bow. He is a creative partner to the Moscow English Theatre, an outfit he explains is intended to produce shows in English for Russian audiences.
So, as well as travelling the globe as the five-star funnyman standup poet and the sexy action fantasy superstar Bond, he travels to Russia where with the Mayakovsky Theatre, close to Red Square, he is a stalwart of Chekov classics.
“Bond would be horrified,” he laughs.
Samela Harris
BOND - An Unauthorised Parody!
Presented by Company Gavin Robertson’
When: 24 Feb to 7 Mar
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
GREG BYRON #StandUpPoet
When: 14 to 22 Feb
Where: Treasury Tunnels
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
There is nothing “vague” about Nouvelle Vague.
Marc Collin, co-founder with Olivier Libaux of the gorgeous French musical group, says it is really quite specific. Its musical origin is in bossa nova which is in fact Portuguese for “new wave” and it translates into French as “nouvelle vogue”. So there we have it, it is “new wave” music and it is on an extended curve of the ever-new.
Then again, Collin adds, there is another old-school association to the name of newness. “Nouvelle Vague” also is the name of a renowned French cinematic movement of the sixties.
“Sometimes when we talk about our project, people are confused,” he says.
But there is no confusion when listening to the music. YOUTUBE Link
It simply wraps one in a silken pillow of rhythmic beauty. With the sweetest, softest female voices and catchy beats, it is a world unto itself. And yet, it is a world of covers. Very clever.
Collin explains:
“Bossa nova is a beautiful style of music because it is a mix of samba but slower, so it has a kind of floating rhythm.
“But I don’t think there’s a dance. It’s more something you experience. It was created in Brazil but it very quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. Everyone was doing bossa nova, even in France, in the sixties.”
One may think that punk is an art form alien to such descriptives. But no.
Punk is one of the celebrated aspects of Nouvelle Vague.
“The first reviews we had were in England and they said that only a French band could mix these very famous punk songs in a jazzy, sexy way, recalls Collin.
But, while their music makes one feel good, it is emphatically not “feel-good” music, he adds.
From the beginning Nouvelle Vague has resisted the idea that it is like lounge music. It can be very serious music,
“If you listen carefully, there are some really dark themes,” says Collin.
"Interesting stories and lyrics that resonate" are the essential core of the band’s choice of song.
Collin and Libaux’s first Nouvelle Vague album appeared in 2004 after the two Parisian musicians had agreed on the possibly crazy idea of making a bossa nova version of Love Will Tear Us Apart. Into the studio they went with further song titles, and female vocalists with a fresh approach, and within a year there had been 200,000 worldwide sales and Nouvelle Vague was a hit.
Since then it has travelled the world. Collin admits that touring and performing the same music repeatedly can be tiring. But it is clearly a satisfying lifestyle since, he says, “When we are not touring, we’re missing it”.
The female vocalists chosen for Nouvelle Vague are chosen for the way in which their voices “fit a song”.
“But really people are not coming for the singers. They’re coming to listen to cool songs and our way of doing music,” says Collin.
“That's why we’re still touring 15 years later. The concept has stayed stronger than the people."
The punk pop group first came to Adelaide a decade ago for the Cabaret Festival.
Now, while starring during the kickoff of the Adelaide Festival Centre's 2020 program, it will be celebrating its 15th anniversary.
In honour of this landmark, Collin says Nouvelle Vague brings something special.
“It’s a new show that we’ve built for this 15th anniversary, so we’ve tried to get back to what we used to do in the past,” he explains.
“We didn’t have a drummer or bass player back then. It was more minimalistic.
“We’re playing most of the songs people like, and some songs people have never heard live before. It will be covers from different albums over the years - a kind of ‘best of’."
Samela Harris
When: 10 Jan 2020
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: bass.net.au