This year’s OzAsia Festival programme, the biggest ever, is so bursting with artistic delicacies that a sextet of major events have been revealed a month prior to the official programme launch.
From late October, the Adelaide Festival Centre will host dancing Korean Grandmas, an electro chamber opera inspired by Japanese culture, a modern Chinese theatre classic, a renowned Indian literary festival, a pair of contemporary Japanese visual arts superstars, and the incomparable Moon Lantern Festival.
Korean choreographer Eun-Me Ahn’s ‘Dancing Grandmothers’ is a tribute to the emotionally transformative power of dance. Eun-Me, who has been called ‘the Pina Bausch of Seoul’, has toured her glitter-ball grannies across the globe, dazzling audiences in the discerning dance markets of Paris and the Netherlands. It will play from 25-27 October.
‘War Sum Up’, is “manga opera about the nature of war, about ghosts, superheroes and post- traumatic stress disorder” sung in Japanese. The work by the Latvian National Opera will make its Australian premiere on 5-6 November.
Stan Lai’s Chinese theatrical masterpiece, ‘Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land’, first premiered in 1986 and has since been revised for the stage and adapted for the screen. More than three decades after its release, it will play to Australian audiences for the very first time at the Dunstan Playhouse from 9-11 November.
'Dancing Grandmothers'
The Moon Lantern Festival needs no introduction; it has been an enthusiastically supported feature of the OzAsia Festival each year and returns to the riverbank on 27 October.
Founded in India in 2006, the Jaipur Literary Festival is the world’s largest free festival of its kind. It will arrive in Adelaide from 9-11 November – a huge achievement for the festival.
Contemporary visual artists from Japan, Ryoji Ikeda and Chiharu Shiota, are superstars in their field. Ryoji will present his data.tron (3k version) audio-visual installation, while Berlin-based Chiharu will collaborate with Art Gallery of South Australia on a new installation, while also showcasing some of her previous work.
