Cirrus@Austlit

'Two interconnected story lines collide in this sci-fi, low-fi meets hi-fi live theatre experience like you’ve never seen before. 

'Dream with me.

'If you could re-do a moment in your life, a moment whose memory haunts you, turns you beet red out of nowhere in the supermarket, still has you screaming one-sided conversations in the shower… would you do it? Enter HYPERDREAM; a simulated reality designed to bring you peace, redemption or whatever closure your mind desires. 

'A group of tormented people decide to delve into the dark conflict of their psyches to make things right. They’ve done the work, they’ve paid the premium, but will it be enough? Will it make them feel better? If it feels real… can we all agree that it is real?

'HYPERDREAM is a journey through obsessions, coping mechanisms and our understanding of reality.'

Source: Red Line Productions.

'Madame Ranevskaya is fresh out of love and money. After a failed romance, she returns to the family farm in Manjimup. Faced with impending bankruptcy, the vast and beautiful cherry orchard is soon to be auctioned off against her mounting debts. It’s time to call in the family.

'The Cherry Orchard is Anton Chekhov’s last great masterpiece and this new one-act adaptation by Adriane Daff and Katherine Tonkin, directed by Clare Watson, revels in the comedy of inevitable catastrophes. Overflowing with charm, a touch of the 1980s and a self-absorbed ensemble of Kath-and-Kim characters. This spirited adaptation looks at those who become victims of their own privilege.'

Source: Black Swan Theatre Company.

'Sarena shakes up her family's dynamic when she seeks out a mysterious treatment that gives her the courage to redefine who she is and what she is capable of.'

Source: St Kilda Film Festival.

'After leaving a cult, a young woman undergoes a process of self-rehabilitation. As she struggles to find her place in the modern world, she discovers things are not so different on the outside after all. Inspired by religious sects of the last 40 years from Heaven’s Gate to Westboro Baptist Church, Adriane Daff (The Last Great Hunt) breaks through the screaming allure of pop culture, our fear of death and the extraordinarily persuasive powers of the internet to shine a spotlight on ‘soft’ cults—cults you probably didn’t know you belonged to.' (Production summary)

'Let’s begin with two people.

'Deep in the gloom a phone rings. They take the call. The voice on the line slips beneath her skin and curls its fingers around his stomach.

'You can’t see it, you can’t touch it, you can barely feel it. You can’t hold on tight enough.

'These people, these sisters and lovers and pilots and brothers are joined deep beneath the surface, below knowledge, down where desire and depravity lie. The line goes dead and these two people catch a glimpse of what’s to come, as it retreats back into the fog.

'A new work from Side Pony Productions (The Confidence Man, The Pride) and The Last Great Hunt (Falling through Clouds, The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer), The Irresistible is a reckless, intoxicating love letter to the subconscious.'

Source: Side Pony Productions.

'A drive to a dress-up party in the country gets complicated bringing out the ugly in everybody.

'Everyone made a special effort for Dave's animal themed 21st. A make-shift lion, mouse, and an unidentified animal pick up a misinformed robot to make the long journey to the remote celebration. On the way they hit a kangaroo which spirals their tenuous relationships into a surreal state of disarray. Hayley is convinced that a dignified burial for the kangaroo is the right thing to do and pours her energy into that plight to avoid her dysfunctional relationship that's not about to end or get better.'

Source: Side Pony Productions.

'Ernest Hemingway loved deep sea fishing, big game hunting and women.

'Hemingway’s love of women led to a long-winded, complicated love life littered with a series of tragically poetic marriages. The inherent theatricality in the demise of so many of his marriages will be the starting point for the development of Side Pony Productions’ The Wives of Hemingway.

'Hemingway had four wives and inevitably blamed each wife for the breakdown of his previous marriage. The overtly theatrical circumstances of Hemingway’s love life coupled with his obsession with death and violence provide fertile ground for a comically tragic narrative. Hemingway was ardently passionate about big game hunting; hunting bears in America and later big game on his many expeditions to Africa. Hemingway saw hunting as a way of bringing a family together, an activity he had done with his father and a tradition he carried on with his sons.

'The Wives of Hemingway draws on two of Hemingway’s texts; ‘The Garden of Eden’ published posthumously which reads as a fictionalised romantic interpretation of the transition between his first and second wife; and ‘The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber’; set on safari this story sheds light on Hemingway’s longstanding obsession with power and masculinity. These texts have been a vehicle to delve into some of Ernest Hemingway’s more interesting preoccupations; androgyny, sexual role reversals, homosexuality and haircuts. Hemingway was a great story teller and his variations on the truth seemed to falter with age as he grew biased toward his more distant marriages and remembered these wives with great reverence and sadness which is most evident in his posthumously published texts.

'The Wives of Hemingway follows the love affair of Catherine and Wilson (Hemingway). Catherine’s obsessive love begins to reveal itself through her desire to be a boy, just like Wilson. This manifests through her dressing like him and getting his haircut. The matching duo are admired by a stranger, Helen. So flattered by her flattery, they invite her to get ‘their’ haircut and come on safari with them. As Catherine begins to assert her new found power Wilson’s affections shift from Catherine to Helen and the dynamics of the trio begin to implode. Catherine is reluctant to relinquish her mantle as wife and the three descend into a surreal and brutal battle for love.'

Source: Side Pony Productions.

'The Pride takes a long hard look at lions.

'Bruce, weighed down by his impressive mane, is struggling with the pressure of renovations and taking care of his pride. Bruce knows time is limited, when James, his stronger, more handsome neighbour, starts peering through the windows admiring his home and his family.

'The drama of the jungle never seemed so close to home in this award-winning comedy that explores people’s readiness to forgive, even in the face of gross moral trespasses.

'After a wildly successful season at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Side Pony Productions heads to Sydney with this unique David Attenborough meets The Mighty Boosh comedy.' (Source: http://rocksurfers.org/thepride/ )