Productions

The Bridal Lament

We are thrilled to finally announce our Artistic Director, Tessa Leong's debut work at the helm of the company!

Joining forces once again with the astounding artist and musician, Rainbow Chan 陳雋然, CAAP and Performance Space proudly present The Bridal Lament – a reimagining of the Weitou ritual that brings forth a dynamic world of projection, movement, and colour. 

Drawing on her Weitou ancestry (first settlers of Hong Kong), the work reimagines a Weitou ritual known as the bridal lament, a public performance of grief in which a bride wept and sang in front of her family and friends. In this liminal space, brides expressed bitterness towards their arranged marriages and the prevailing patriarchal rule.  

Conceived and structured as a song cycle, the work brings to life intergenerational and cross-cultural perspectives on diasporic experiences and the complex history of Hong Kong in an emotionally resonant and sumptuous audiovisual experience. Featuring a suite of new songs from Chan, The Bridal Lament pays homage to the Weitou ritual, bringing to life a dynamic world of projection, movement and colour. 

Key Creatives

Lead Artist and Performer: Rainbow
Director: Tessa Leong
Choreographic Consultants: Amrita Hepi & Victoria Hunt
Video Design: Rel Pham
Set Design: Al Joel & Emily Borghi
Costume Design: Al Joel
Lighting Concept: Govin Ruben
Lighting Realiser: Susie Henderson

Co-commissioned by Performance Space and OzAsia, and presented by Performance Space and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance.

Supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, City of Melbourne through Arts House, the Besen Foundation, Playking Foundation, the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, and West Kowloon Cultural District and with commissioning support from Carriageworks.

Generously supported by George Paramananthan and ParamCo.

Tickets and Performances 

LIVEWORKS
Thu19 Oct, 8:30pm
Fri 20 Oct, 8:30pm
Sat 21 Oct, 8:30pm
Sun 22 Oct, 6:30pm
Bay 20, Carriageworks 

TICKETS

OzAsia Festival 
Wed 1 Nov, 7pm 
Thu 2 Nov, 7pm
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre Theatre 

TICKETS  

Check out Seven Sisters written, performed, produced and recorded by Rainbow Chan,

 

 

 

OzAsia Festival presents in association with Contemporary Asian Australian Performance

Lost in Shanghai

Photo Credit: Clare Hawley

After it's SOLD OUT season at Sydney Festival earlier this year, Lost in Shanghai is heading to OzAsia Festival this October. 

"A tantalising insight into the breadth and bravery she displayed across her career" - The Age/Sydney Morning Herald. 

Of all the stories Jane Hutcheon has encountered as an ABC journalist, China correspondent, war zone reporter and author, one has intrigued her more than any other: that of her mother Beatrice’s turbulent childhood in pre-Communist Shanghai.

Visiting Shanghai in 2018, Jane began to search for the truth of her mother’s difficult beginnings.  Lost in Shanghai is the result, a story of an ordinary Eurasian family in extraordinary times, set against a backdrop of fading colonial opulence, civil war and revolution.

Using projected images from the family archive curated by photographer-storyteller William Yang, and music composed and performed by Terumi Narushima, Jane narrates this moving true story in her own words.

Written and performed by Jane Hutcheon

Co-directed by William Yang and Tasnim Hossain

Dramaturgy by Tasnim Hossain

Composer/musician Terumi Narushima

Lighting Designer Susan Grey Gardner

Stage Manager Brenda Lam

Tour Assistant Kraig Grady

Producer Jacqui Smith

Marketing Natasha Pontoh-Supit

20 - 22 October 2022  |  Space Theatre, Adelaide 

This event has now finished.  

Supported as part of the Carriageworks 2021 In Development program.