RealTime E-dition 14 June 2017

RealTime E-dition

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Let's get historical, an antidote to the hysterical politics of the moment. It's been inspiring and reassuring to ponder the grim beauty of Patrick White's The Ham Funeral (1948) and to immerse oneself in Stephen Jones' alchemical video of the great new music collective Machine for Making Sense in performance in 1994 (image above). Jon Rose's entertaining account of the career and contributions to contemporary music-making of sound collagist Rik Rue conjures a culturally dense Sydney of the 80s and 90s. The 80s are prominent again in a review of Meredith Rogers' book on the influential Geelong-based Mill Community Theatre. And Aboriginal playwright Nakkiah Lui takes on the old white bourgeois comedy of manners with verve in Black is the New White. Meanwhile, in the second of our reports on the nurturing of new work in Adelaide, Vitalstatistix invests substantially in the future. Keith & Virginia

AMIABLE SUBVERSION In Black is the New White, playwright Nakkiah Lui deftly takes on and wickedly ramps up the bourgeois comedy of manners to portray an Aboriginal middle class family, its prejudices and deeply felt sensitivities.

ARCHETYPAL IMAGININGS With varying degrees of success, Ensemble Offspring's Seven Stories brings together seven composers, poet, video artist and musicians to engage with primal tales in an ambitious concert.

RIK RUE, SOUND COLLAGIST In a richly evocative socio-cultural account of decades of musical life in Sydney and beyond, Jon Rose and fellow artists applaud the contribution made by a very special sound artist, Rik Rue.

THE JOYS OF CONFUSION Revelation Perth International Film Festival Program Director Jack Sargeant speaks with Lauren Carroll Harris about the value of films that embody the confusion of living in an ever-stranger world of fake news and virtual existence.

PERFORMANCE NURTURERS 2: VITALSTATISTIX Despite the depredations of the Brandis funding heist, Port Adelaide's Vitalstatistix fights through with local and national incubations, works-in-progress and innovative collaboratations, Emma Webb tells Ben Brooker.

THE MILL: THE BOOK In its documentation of an influential and ground-breaking Australian theatre company, Meredith Rogers’ The Mill: Experiments in Theatre and Community makes "a vital contribution to the history of Australian theatre," writes Robert Reid.

AUSTRALIAN-MADE IN PARIS
Though boldly made without government funding and successfully exploiting new distribution platforms, Sophie Mathisen’s new comedic movie, Drama struggles to transcend genre limitations, writes Eloise Ross.

MRS LUSTY'S TRAGEDY
Kate Gaul’s chilling production of Patrick White's The Ham Funeral embraces the work's poetry, its grim comedy and, above all, sharply delineates the tragedy of a sensual women denied love and forgiveness.

REALTIME TV: MACHINE FOR MAKING SENSE, SILENCE IS...
On with the headphones and hit full-screen, full volume for Stephen Jones' engrossing, multilayered visual poem of the groundbreaking new music collective in performance in 1994.

THE LOOP: COLLISIONS
Art and capital collide in a collection of recommended reads on US art gallery donors’ political contributions, curious reports about documenta 14 and conversations on race and women in Australia.

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RealTime E-ditions are published by Open City an Incorporated Association in New South Wales. Open City Inc is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding body, and by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy [VACS], an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

Opinions published in RealTime are not necessarily those of the Editorial Team or the Publisher.

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