Teens will love it for its raw energy and urban culture while established theatre audiences will be enthralled by its sophisticated interpretive physical theatre […] See it for the immediacy of performance and for the charged climax to its elusive narrative. Unspoken, yet starkly dreamt, Paradise City is a brilliant powerhouse of physical poetics. Don’t be afraid to sit in the front row.
Independent Weekly, Adelaide, 24 April 2008
In a truly spectacular hybrid of urban street-style meets dance, a skater, a break-dancer, a BMX rider, an acrobat, a dancer and a singer converge at a meeting in a stark urban space. This no-place, non-space is strewn with orange & white road barriers; a plush red velvet curtain cascades incongruously into it, a leftover from some former glory.
The skateboarder prepares the space, his wheels tracing cursive arcs across the surface. Watching him is a woman dancing; her inner thoughts of an alienating city eerily sung & growled by a fallen opera diva. Entering & changing the rhythm with convulsive body pulsations is a break-dancer, made anonymous by a faceless hood.
Weaving through the road barriers, a BMX rider dances from pedal to peg and up on one wheel, his bike spinning around his body. The diva voices the bodies to a live score spanning Bach, filmic soundscapes and driving beats, as the performers begin to interact, to mimic and borrow and steal – and to shape the urban world they inhabit.
An intensely absorbing, lyrical, nightlife street culture fantasia.
An organic blend of skateboarder, bmx-biker, b-boy, dancer and a risk-taking acrobat furiously sweeping around the performance space.Keith Gallasch, “Other Worlds, Outer Limits.” RealTime 77 (Feb-March 2007)
performers/devisers
Alexandra Harrison (acrobat)
Lamaroc (breakdancer)
Petera Hona (skateboard)
Simon O’Brien (BMX)
Kathryn Puie (dancer)
Inga Liljeström (singer)
co-creator/director
Lee Wilson
co-creator/designer
Mirabelle Wouters
creative consultant
Kate Champion
composers/live sound
Inga Liljeström
Bob Scott
Every walking step fine tuned into subtle moves, precise articulations and sensual ripplings—life is dance.
Individuals kick into action, reclaim the tools of their being and their lone, ego-less virtuosities.
The energy of the night wound down in a wave of defeats and little resurgences that mean nothing compared with what has been.
A work of poetic intensity out of everyday play, dance and physical theatre.
A moody, romantic portrayal of a small, intense cosmos.
– Keith Gallasch, “Other Worlds, Outer Limits.” RealTime 77 (Feb-March 2007)
Trailer
Tour Dates
Sydney Opera House Studio
30 November – 10 December 2006
Teatro Do Parque, Recife, Brazil
18-19 October 2007
Teatro Sesiminas, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
24-25 October 2007
Teatro Paulo Autran / SESC PINHEIROS, Sao Paulo, Brazil
27- 28 October 2007
SESC Tijuca – ginásio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
01-04 November 2007
Brisbane Powerhouse
7-13 April 2008
Darwin entertainment Centre
14-16 April 2008
Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
17- 19 April 2008
Adelaide Festival Centre
21- 27 April 2008
PICA, Perth
28 April – 11 May 2008
Arts House North Melbourne Town Hall
12- 18 May 2008
Albury
19-20 May 2008
Illawara Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong
21- 24 May 2008
Bay 20, Performance Space at Carriageworks
26 May – 08 June 2008
Casula Powerhouse
09-11 June 2008
Paradise City was developed with the support of The Australia Council for the Arts, Arts NSW, Sydney Opera House, Marrickville Council and Performing Lines.
