The 2012 Otago Festival of the Arts plays out over 10 days in October bringing a smorgasbord of acts from around the world, drawn from the worlds of theatre, dance, music, the written word and the visual arts. Here is just a taster of what's in store.
Voice-over actors, live musicians and a lone Foley box artist provide the soundtrack to a classic 1962 B-grade Hollywood horror movie (above left). The film, Carnival of Souls, tells the story of a church organist who becomes haunted after a traumatic experience. In its original form, the film was notable for an eerie organ soundtrack. The stage version, directed by Oliver Driver, provides "a completely new theatrical experience".
Friday October 5 and Saturday October 6
Regent Theatre
Giant books, old-world marionettes and sign language tell the tale of Martha Grimstone (left), a young girl who can see people's dreams. In an effort to lift the spirits of her grieving mother, she decides to use magic to create a baby brother - but a crucial mistake in the spell means the results are catastrophic.
This one is perfect family fare for the school holidays.
Friday October 12 to Sunday October 14
Fortune Theatre
Bahia of All Colours
Brazil's internationally acclaimed Balé Folclórico da Bahia (above right) bring a breathtaking carnival of music and dance in their New Zealand debut. The 20-strong troupe, including dancers, musicians and singers, perform dances of Bahian folk lore, drawing on the African origins of those living in the South American state.
Friday October 12 and Saturday October 13
Regent Theatre
Korean-born violinist Hahn-Bin has said: "I am Viagra to classical music and aspirin to pop culture". The violin virtuoso has attracted rapturous acclaim for his music and almost equal attention for his idiosyncratic styling. Most recently he has adopted the persona "Amadeus Leopold". The Itzhak Perlman protege combines a classical repertoire with pop performance sensibility.
Wednesday October 10
Otago Girls' auditorium.
Rita and Douglas
In a tribute to artist Rita Angus and composer Douglas Lilburn, Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Michael Houstoun present the words and music of the two New Zealand arts figures.
Playwright Dave Armstrong has used excerpts from Angus' letters for the dialogue, which is interspersed with Lilburn's music. It provides a glimpse of 1940s New Zealand as well as an insight into the lives of the two artists.
Friday October 5 to Sunday October 7
Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre
Tic Tic
New Zealand performer Paul Barrett brings his tale of Tourette syndrome, mixing mirth with music and some moving moments. The solo musical satire, which debuted at the Auckland Comedy Festival,shares Barrett's experience of life as a performer with Tourette's, and includes a cast of dozens - all played by him.
Friday October 5 to Sunday October 7
HMNZS Toroa Hall
Fuse Circus brings its wagons to town to perform Revolver, a show celebrating the ideas of chance, gender, sexuality and body image while musing on attraction and repulsion. It's a show for fans of the circus-cabaret of The Loons' Circus Company, who previously brought the shows The Butler and Berlin Burlesque south. The Fuse circus and physical-theatre artists punch holes in the boundary between art and life, transporting the audience to an alternate steam-punk reality where anything can happen.
Friday October 5 and Saturday October 6
Sammy's
Nga Hau e Wha Taiaroa
Royal and Taane Mete perform in Nga Hau e Wha, a contemporary dance work from Okareka Dance Company, in which eight dancers roam a barren land. Human figures are transformed into unearthly creatures as they travel the world's winds, its waters, earth and fire. They defy gravity and burrow into the breast of Papatuanuku.
Tuesday October 9 and Wednesday October 10
Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre
The choir's only South Island concert during a tour of Australia and New Zealand is at the Otago Festival of the Arts.
Steeped in 500-year-old Austrian tradition, the Vienna Boys Choir is made up of more than 100 choristers between the ages of 10 and 14, divided into four touring choirs. Twenty-five of them, dressed in their trademark sailor suits, bring their bell-pure voices to the Regent. The programme includes music from the Renaissance, modern pieces and Viennese favourites by Johann and Josef Strauss.
Tuesday October 9
Regent Theatre
Le Vent Du Nord
French-Canadian folk outfit Le Vent Du Nord bring their button accordion, fiddle, guitar and foot percussion and,especially, their hurdy-gurdy,"which adds an earthy, rough-hewn flavour". Playing a mix of traditional and original compositions, the foursome challenge an audience to keep its feet still.
Thursday October 11
Otago Girls' auditorium
Spooky Men's Chorale
Farewell anything you thought you knew about choirs.
The Spooky Men's Chorale lurches from the sacred sounds of the Church to the lesss alubrious vocalisations of "a raft of drunken Kazahkstani butchers". Perhaps best known here for a 2011 Speight's beer a din which bearded men went wild, they have also performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Friday October 12 to Sunday October 14
Kings and Queens Performing Arts Centre
Multi-award-winning soul diva Whirimako Black mixes jazz and blues, English and Te Reo, in a performance that has taken her to Europe and back.
Even while performing the great jazz standards, Black adds a uniquely Maori interpretation, a distinctive sound.
Monday October 8
Otago Girls' auditorium
H'sao
Afro-soul ensemble H'sao combines the sounds and rhythms of Africa, including their native Chad, with soul, gospel, R&B and a little French-Canadian flair. The family affair began performing in a church choir and now set their singing,song writing and muscianship skills to a range of musical forms, featuring a cappella harmonies.
Saturday October 13
St Paul's Cathedral
Billy Bragg
The thinking man's troubador, Billy Bragg brings a two-set show to the Otago Festival of the Arts. In the first part he pays tribute to US folk singer Woody Guthrie - whose centenary is being marked this year - before performing the songs that have made his name. Bragg has mixed politics and music from the start and was called in to set some of Guthrie's words to music in the Mermaid Avenue recording project.
Sunday October 14
Otago Girls' auditorium
The Comrade Z Radio Hour
A publicity quote supplied by the band says "When they were not tossing cabbages and borscht at the band, the audience was enjoying the music". Comrade Z brings its Radio Hour show to the festival, in which it claims to play both kinds of east European music, happy and sad. The show involves the band broadcasting a live 90-minute show of its music "back to Soviet Russia".
The band has, it says, earned a reputation in New Zealand as the loudest East European band.
Monday October 8 to Wednesday October 10
HMNZS Toroa hall
Play
West Coast artist Hannah Kidd has fashioned three urns for the staging of the Samuel Beckett play, Play. The drama places each of three actors, playing a man, his wife and his mistress, in an urn and prompts them to speak with a spotlight.
Play is 20 minutes long and will be performed repeatedly during hour and a-half periods,allowing audiences to stay as long or as briefly as they like.
Tuesday October 9 to Saturday October 13
Standard Insurance Building
Where We Once Belonged
A coming-of-age story set in the Samoa of the 1970s, based on the 1994 Commonwealth prize-winning novel of Sia Figiel, Samoa's first female novelist.
The play won a Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for best New Zealand play but has not previously been peformed in the South Island.
Monday October 8 to Thursday October 11
Fortune Theatre
Middlemarch Singles Ball
The Middlemarch Singles Ball is headed for disaster. All the tickets have been sold to single women and all the local men are married to Auckland imports.
Panicking, the organising committee must now turn to the big smoke to find men for the local ladies. The play, by Mosgiel playwright Ella West, has its first outing in Dunedin.
Friday October 5 to Saturday October 13
Globe Theatre
Swing Time
Making arguably the best use of the HMNZS Toroa hall as avenue for this year's festival, the sailor-suited Beat girls present Swing Time, a tribute to the swing tunes of the 1930s and 1940s that lifted people's spirits during World War 2.
Thursday October 11 to Saturday October 13
HMNZS Toroa Hall
Zephyr Wind Quintet
Principal players from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra combine as as a quintet mixing "humour,melancholy, energy, melody and lyricism" in a programme featuring Ligeti's Six Bagatelles,"Bartok with a little Stravinsky"and a new commission by Gareth Farr.
Sunday October 7
Otago Girls' auditorium
St Paul's At One
The St Paul's At One programme this year features classical music, poetry, jazz and Latin American music. Festival favourite Michael Houstoun plays Beethoven, harpist Helen Webby plays specially commissioned work, Trevor Coleman and Nick Cornish team up, Brian Turner shares his poetry and Acapulco-born musician Carlos Navae brings a mix of original compositions and classics from Latin America.
Monday October 8 to Friday October 12
St Paul's Cathedral
Late Night Festival Club
The festival's late night club is based on the top floor of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery this year, providing a varied menu of musical treats. Acts include the Nairobi Trio, Mel Parsons and the Rhythm Kings, Penny black and the Broken men and Subject2Change.
Friday October 5 to Saturday October 13
Visual Art
Many of Dunedin's galleries have exhibitions to coincide with the festival. There's old and new at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, with Yvonne Todd photography and murals by Sir Frank Brangwyn; a new mural will go up in Hoyts Lane; at Mint Gallery Anneloes Douglas will begin a live painting project; while the Octagon will be closed to traffic on the opening Saturday for Chalktagon! An opportunity for anyone to decorate the streets and footpaths.
