AIN’T THAT AMERICA
Superb play arrives in timely fashion
From African adaptations of Italian operas on Shakespeare classics, to investigations into mechanical erotica or the music of Frank Zappa performed by a 30-piece orchestra, the lineup for the 2017 Push International Performing Arts Festival reinforces the mid-winter event’s reputation for multidisciplinary performance on the cutting edges.
At a launch event at the Fox Cabaret Monday night, some of the festival’s highlights were announced. Full schedules can be found online, but of note is a sizable contingent of artists from the United Kingdom. Is Push benefiting from the post-Brexit pound crash?
“It’s due to a partnership that we have with an organization called Caravan, which represents new British-devised work in theatre, and some dance,” said Norman Armour, Push’s artistic and ex- ecutive director. “They reached out — to us, to Shanghai — with some exceptional pieces such as Wallflower (Quarantine) about memories of dances; Backstage in Biscuit Land from Touretteshero, which is a remarkable work about a truly unique syndrome; and a serious play for youth about anorexia called Mess, co-produced with the Vancouver International Children’s Festival.”
Armour said this year’s Push Festival will be particularly valuable for advancing the conversation on difficult topics such as depression, isolation and community engagement.
It’s not just anywhere you catch something like South Korean artist Geumhyoung Jeong’s show Oil Pressure Vibrator, about pursuing self-satisfaction from an industrial excavator.
“A fascinating artist who was here once before during the (2009)
Live Biennale, whose work is very playful, mischievous and kind of hard to read, as in: ‘How do I position this?’ ” Armour said.
“She is a real mover on the international circuit whose work is, obviously, quite singular. You really have never seen anything like it.”
This is part and parcel of what has built such solid audiences for the festival. But it isn’t all just avant-garde. Verdi’s Macbeth, for instance, is a unique take on a familiar story. Produced by South Africa’s Third World Bunfight, this interpretation of the classical work moves the setting to the Democratic Republic of Congo, with modern-day trappings and a subversive storyline complete with a regionally influenced score.
“Talk about not mincing words. Brett Bailey is someone to be reckoned with, who has done things such as a musical on (former Ugandan president) Idi Amin, and this is big,” Armour said. “It fit beautifully with collaborating for the first time with Vancouver Opera, and it’s going to rock the house.”
But Australia’s Black Arm Band might have the biggest buzz of 2017’s event. Their work Dirtsong — part documentary, part collaborative musical performance — is a celebration of Australian indigenous artists, developed into a fullblown multicultural experience. CDM2 Lightworks, the Australian High Commission, Full Circle: First Nations Performance and local musical support are all involved in the presentation.
“Dirtsong was a commissioned work that came out of Australia’s truth and reconciliation hearings process, and when it played at an arts event I was at earlier, there were 40 different American artist representatives lining up afterwards to present it,” Armour said. “Like Monumental last year, this is going to be the big event night, I think.”
And that’s just the performances. There is also the Club Push roster, Push Assembly for industry insiders, and other contributing parties.