The freshest theatre, right here in Canberra

Posted on 21 January, 2019

Love the theatre but want something new? 

Well, strap yourself in because this March, Canberra Theatre Centre (CTC) is cracking open a can of the freshest new theatre Australia has to offer.

ETCETERA is a collection of independent and alternative works which rush the freshest shows straight to Canberra – it’s bold, it’s fast, and it’s anything but boring.

To kick off an exciting year of theatre and as part of the ETCETERA program, from 6-9 March artists from across Canberra’s independent arts scene will take over CTC’s courtyard studio for four packed days and nights of original live music, theatre and dance.

Each night will kick off with Happy Hour drinks at 6 pm before talent support acts take the stage at 7 pm ahead of the headline performances at 8 pm.

So what can you see?

UNBECOMING

Credit: Thorson Photography

Headline Act – 6 and 8 March

Welcome to your post-death afterglow. Due to the nature of your death, you are permitted one haunting within the limited time period of your unbecoming, the duration of which is unknown.

Ado wakes up dead. And rotting. Pretty soon she can walk through walls, read people’s minds, and travel through time, and she is killing it. Now that she’s dead and free of all the expectations everyone has of teenage girls she can finally do what she wants.

Except… all she wants now is to solve the mystery of her own death. As a ghostly dead girl in the process of her unbecoming, Ado doesn’t have long before she will be gone completely: how will she choose to use her last chance to interact with humanity, her one-time-only haunting?

Unbecoming is a one-woman play about our obsession with the “dead girl” and what it means for that girl when she actually ends up dead. According to Edgar Allan Poe “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world,” but this time the dead girl finally speaks for herself.

WRITER: Cathy Petocz | DIRECTOR: Gin Savage | PERFORMER: Isobel Burton | See more information here

HYPERSPACE

Credit: Morgan Hickinbotham

Headline Act – 7 and 9 March

HYPERSPACE is the third in a series of works from James Batchelor and his collaborators that grew from a unique opportunity to be part of a scientific expedition to study sub-Antarctic islands in 2016.

From the human body to the cosmos, HYPERSPACE is an inquiry into the metrics we use to measure the deep unknowns of the universe. It proposes a study of the human body seen through the prism of cosmology, a mapping of the universe within and around it.

The interior and exterior landscapes of the body are deconstructed, producing a self-critique of the masculine body and its dominance in space exploration. In HYPERSPACE, the fleshy material of the body bends, stretches and is reconfigured as alien transmutation, appearing simultaneously colossal and microscopic.

CHOREOGRAPHER / PERFORMER / CONCEPT – James Batchelor | COMPOSER / SOUND Designer – Morgan Hickinbotham | PRODUCER / CONCEPT – Bek Berger | LIGHTING DESIGNER – HØV (Matthew Adey) | ILLUSTRATOR/DESIGNER – Amber McCartney | See more information here

SUPPORT ACTS

HYPERSPACE and UNBECOMING will be supported by a variety of Canberra-based talent across the four night, including Happy Axe, Pheno, Aphir and Reuben Ingall.

Make sure to get along to CTC from 6 pm onwards for Happy Hour and to discover their unique sounds ahead of the main performance.

the essentials 

What: ETCETERA and Canberra Theatre Centre present UNBECOMING and HYPER SPACE
When: 6-9 March from 6 pm onwards (headline acts start at 8 pm)
Where: Courtyard Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre
Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au or call the Box Office on (02) 6275 2700