WORLD PREMIERE SEASON
PRESENTED BY MELBOURNE FESTIVAL, SYDNEY FESTIVAL, ADELAIDE FESTIVAL & SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY
Win Tickets to see ‘Never Did Me Any Harm’ at the Melbourne Festival’
(see end of article)
Force Majeure Australia’s leading dance theatre company, Force Majeure led by Artistic Director Kate Champion present a brilliant, brave and deeply stirring culmination of theatre and dance, inspired by the themes of Christos Tsiolkas’s flashpoint novel, The Slap. From award-‐winning Australian director and choreographer Kate Champion comes a riveting dissection of what it means to be a parent in today’s Australia. Featuring some of the nation’s finest actors performing alongside dancers drawn from Champion’s celebrated Force Majeure, Never Did Me Any Harm is a powerful melding of theatre and dance, a compelling work that speaks to our everyday anxieties and concerns.
In a time when the act of raising children is scrutinised more than ever before, we seem to be paralysed by an excess of knowledge and self-‐awareness. Is the pressure to get it right overwhelming us? And what is ‘good parenting’ anyway? Are children today given too much choice? Too few boundaries? Less chance to take risks?
Over three years, Champion and her company interviewed people of all ages and backgrounds to garner their views on the subject of parenting. The result is an immensely powerful, condensed sequence of short scenes, giving a bewilderingly kaleidoscopic view of the challenges, taboos and absurdities of parenting. Set in a familiar, yet disconcerting Aussie backyard, seven performers transition from parent to child and back again in a series of challenging vignettes incorporating monologues and playful dance interludes, interwoven with inspired digital projection work and audio collected from the interviews. Born in Sydney, Champion began her dance training with Karen Kerkhoven, later continuing her studies in Munich. She has worked with DV8 Physical Theatre in the UK and with some of the best known contemporary dance companies in Australia, including One Extra Company, Dance North and the Austral awarded Helpmann, Green Room and Australian Dance Awards along with the Robert Helpmann Scholarship for Choreographic Excellence. A captivating work that has attracted rave reviews with its power, poignancy and distinctively Australian humour, Never Did Me Any Harm is a lovingly crafted gem from one of our nation’s most compelling and innovative choreographers.
“The performers’ physical exuberance, along with the confessional recordings, some hysterical, others sad and sobering, makes for incredible entertainment.” The Daily Telegraph
Venue: The MTC Theatre, Sumner
Dates: Tue 9 – Sat 13 Oct at 7pm
Duration: Thu 11 & Sat 13 Oct at 1.30pm
Tickets: Priced from $25 -‐ $70
Bookings: The MTC Theatre / (03) 8688 0800 / mtc.com.au
Ticketmaster / 136 100 / melbournefestival.com.au
