The 2017 Sydney Festival Program Has Landed

January’s three-week Sydney Festival season will feature a lineup of free and ticketed shows, exhibitions, talks and events across music, theatre, dance, visual arts, circus and more. And as usual, the Festival Village will be back in Hyde Park with the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent as its focal point.

The 2017 program is at once more focused and boasts broader appeal, with incoming festival director Wesley Enoch paying special attention to indigenous programming and making public spaces more accessible. Let’s dive right in:

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MUSIC

Joining the already announcedPJ Harvey(Sunday January 22)for Sydney Festival’s first run of shows at Darling Harbour’s new ICC Sydney Theatre will beNick Cave and The Bad Seeds (Friday January 20 and Saturday January 21).

St Stephen’s Uniting Church will host international names includingKaitlyn Aurelia Smith,Moses SumneyandDori Freeman, while the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent will seeRegurgitatorperformThe Velvet Underground & Nico, US foursomeLake Street Dive,Weyes BloodandCash Savage, plus more.

PJ Harvey: photo by Maria Mochnacz

The Sydney Opera House will host a celebration of 50 years of indigenous music since the 1967 referendum, with performances fromDan Sultan,Adalita,Thelma Plumand more at a gala concert,Music In The Key Of Yes(Tuesday January 17).

The annualSymphony Under The Starswill return to The Domain (Saturday January 14), as well as make its way west toParramatta Park (Saturday January 28), andOpera In The Domainis back on Saturday January 21.

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THEATRE AND DANCE

The Season: photo by Simon Pynt

Aboriginal playwright Nathan Maynard’sThe Seasonmakes its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House, while Queensland Theatre Company’s lauded Aussie musicalLadies In Blacktakes over the Sydney Lyric. Meanwhile, Patricia Cornelius’ imaginatively titledShitwill play at the Seymour Centre.

International theatre highlights includeMeasure For Measureby Cheek By Jowl with Pushkin Theatre, a British-Russian collaboration that takes a Shakespearean tale into modern Moscow, andThe Encounterwith Richard Katz, in which audiences don headphones and follow the epic journey ofNational Geographicphotographer Loren McIntyre.

Sydney Dance Company’s Rafael Bonachela will choreograph six dancers inNude Live, a companion to the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ summer exhibitionNude, while there’s a taste of Indonesian dance inCry JailoloandBalabala, and Greek philosophy fuses with dance inStill Life.

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VISUAL ARTS AND INSTALLATIONS

The Beach: photo by Noah Kalina

Sydney Festival’s signature large-scale installations are back, starring aHouse Of Mirrorsat Hyde Park andThe Beach, an enormous monochromatic ball pit (yes!) at The Cutaway, Barangaroo Reserve.

Campbelltown Arts Centre will host the first major exhibition byMyuran Sukumaran, the Bali Nine member who died under Indonesia’s death penalty in 2015.Another Day In Paradise, curated by Ben Quilty, will include portraits painted by Sukumaran from jail, as well as newly commission artworks by other Australian artists.

Meanwhile,Scent Of Sydneyturns its focus to the sense of smell, as Carriageworks hostsCat Jones‘ exhibition of Sydney’s identity, distilled into scents.

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CIRCUS

Parramatta will host its most exciting Sydney Festival program yet, asCircus Citytakes over the western CBD with a bunch of physical fun for the whole family.

Canada’s world-renownedCirque Éloize bringsiDto the Riverside Theatre, joined at the venue by Australia’s Company 2 withKaleidoscope, an acrobatic and comedic performance focused on achievement in the face of disability.

Out in Prince Alfred Square, Sydney Trapeze School will host flying trapeze workshops, while UK company Ockham’s Razor and Australia’s own Circa perform their respective showsTipping PointandHumansunder the Big Top.

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CABARET AND COMEDY

The Second Coming: Briefs

The ever-popular cabaret program at the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent is headed up by The Second Coming withBriefs(Friday January 6 – Sunday January 22), fresh from sold-out seasons in Berlin and London. Tim Finn and Dorothy Porter’s The Fiery Mazewill play for five nights, whileOtto and Astrid bring more Berlin weirdness withEurosmash!.

Homegrown cabaret highlights includeMother’s Ruin: A Cabaret About GinandRetro Futurisms.

Finally, Sydney Festival’s second year of comedy programming sees local comediennesFelicity WardandCelia Pacquolatake the stage with their latest festival hours.

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