Lee Harris – 18/6/99
A sparkling array of the very best New Zealand and international artists take centre stage in the 1999 Christchurch Arts Festival.
For 18 days from July 21 to August 8 audiences will have the chance to enjoy more than 300 extraordinary theatre, music, literature, dance, jazz, cabaret, visual arts events and more, in New Zealand’s largest regional arts festival and the last for this millennium.
“The Christchurch Arts Festival has rapidly gained a reputation for excellence and diversity, for a programme that is both challenging and responsive, and for an unfaltering commitment to presenting the best,” Festival Director Briony Ellis says.
The 1999 Festival has “plenty to move, amuse, thrill, and indulge”, she says.
Highlights of the fine music programme include sublime American diva Alessandra Marc and acclaimed pianist Charles Rosen giving solo recitals in the Tower International Series; Mstislav Rostropovich in concert with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; a concert to celebrate the life and work of one of this century’s leading composers, the late Alfred Schnittke; and six of New Zealand’s best young musicians performing in the Telecom Six at Six series, including last year’s Mobil Song Quest winner Jonathan Lemalu and sensational composer and musician Gareth Farr.
The theatre programme features the hit Flowers from My Mother’s Garden, with Dame Kate and Miranda Harcourt, and other highlights include the Milburn Comedy Season comprising Bare, by Ian Hughes and Madeleine Sami and the darling of this year’s Wellington Fringe Festival, Split.
Acclaimed actor Jim Moriarty returns with his community theatre company to create Watea, or “Pathways to Freedom”. This emotionally powerful theatre piece tells the very real and honest stories of the inmates involved in an incredibly moving, enlightening and thought-provoking theatre experience.
Interest is high in the New Zealand premiere of White Baptist Abba Fan – the remarkable story of one of the “stolen generation”, written and performed by Australian Deborah Cheetham and directed by Cathy Downes. White Baptist Abba Fan opens at the Great Hall, Arts Centre, on Monday, July 26 and runs until Wednesday, August 4.
Contemporary dance company Shona McCullagh’s Human Garden presents Mad Angels in its first South Island season. The retrospective compilation of McCullagh’s finest shorter works features Love Duet, from a 1998 commission for the New Zealand Festival. Special guest, New Zealand’s best-known choreographer Douglas Wright will perform a new solo work.
Contemporary and traditional Kai Tahu artists will be featured among some of the country’s leading Maori artists in the exhibition Rukutia! Rukutia! The Festival’s Visual Arts programme includes several exhibitions focusing on applied art – the largest gathering of works by applied artists ever staged in New Zealand.
The ASB BANK Jazz & Cabaret Season presents the broadest range of performance, from progressive young NZ jazz pianist Mark de Clive-Lowe to dazzling master of cabaret, the flamboyant Mika, returning from his new Edinburgh home base for a short season; from the glamorous Ellie Smith & Jackie Clarke’s Broadway Songbirds to the premiere performance of Gareth Farr’s Drumdrag: glamourhythm.
Five outstanding New Zealand poets come together to share their lyrical views of New Zealand in These Islands – an evening of readings by Hone Tuwhare, Cilla McQueen, Sam Hunt, Kapka Kassabova and Gary McCormick.
Among our special events, a bunch of professional tongue-waggers gather for the Montana Big 8 Debate to tackle the moot “That Good Kiwi Men are not as Keen as they used to be”.
Gary McCormick, Kim Hill, Kerre Woodham, Tom Scott, Jim Hopkins, Kevin Smith, Mark Wright and Mika offer their unique views of Kiwi men and their patterns of behaviour.
Ms Ellis says the Festival aims to bring people, colour, quality, vibrancy, fun and excitement to the city in the middle of winter – “that has got to be good for everyone!”
The full programme is available from the Christchurch Arts Festival office by telephoning 0800 4 ARTS 99 (0800 4 2787 99). Or check out 1999 Christchurch Arts Festival website –
www.artsfestival.co.nz.
