Sydney Festival has launched its 40th anniversary year with the announcement of its 2016 theatrical centrepiece: a musical adaptation by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan of a Georg Büchner play.
Woyzeck, a collaboration between the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Waits and Brennan and theatre director Robert Wilson, is Thalia Theater Hamburg’s retelling of the early 19th century play about madness, obsession and murder. The 2016 Australian exclusive season is sure to attract fans of Waits and Brennan’s work, with their initial musical version of the story fashioned into the album Blood Money.
Meanwhile, Sydney Festival’s 40th birthday celebrations will kick off early with a season of Desdemona, based on Shakespeare’s Othello, playing this October. Desdemona – as the name suggests, a retelling of the famous tale from the voice of its fiery female – took shape under the eye of Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison, Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré and stage director Peter Sellars.
Woyzeck will play at Carriageworks from Thursday January 7 – Tuesday January 12 as part of Sydney Festival 2016. Desdemona will play at Roslyn Packer Theatre from Friday October 23 – Sunday October 25. Visit the Sydney Festival website to book.
