CURRENT SHOWS
ENLIGHTENMENT
(The Enlightenment of the Siddhartha Gautama Buddha and the Encounter with the Monkey King - Great Sage, Equal of Heaven)
By Joe Paradise Lui
Produced by Elbow Room
The most important human being ever born. The most powerful creature ever to exist. Somewhere in our city, they’re about to hook up.
Sid’s life is objectively perfect, but utterly empty. Meanwhile, Sage hustles every waking minute against encroaching poverty and desperation. When they meet and fall in love, it’ll change the world, threatening the destruction of cosmic order (ya know, that thing that safeguards all those privileges that we so richly deserve).
Singapore-born, Perth-based artist Joe Paradise Lui returns to the towering stories of his childhood, reimagining the young prince Siddhartha, and the magical Monkey from ‘Journey to the West’ as young women in contemporary Australia.
Part romantic comedy, part crime saga, and part cosmic fever dream, ‘Enlightenment' is a dark, hilarious, and moving parable from one of Australia’s true renegade artists. Don’t miss its premiere production by acclaimed Melbourne theatre-makers Elbow Room, designed by Perth artist Cherish Marrington, and featuring illustrations by renowned artist and activist 巴丢草 (Badiucao), the subject of 'China's Artful Dissident'.
Performed in English with Mandarin surtitles.
中文演出，英文字幕。
Team:
Joe Lui – Writer, Sound and Lighting Designer, Marcel Dorney – Director, Jamie Lewis – Cultural Consultant, 巴丢草 (Badiucao) – Illustrator, Cherish Marrington – Production Designer.
Performed by Merlynn Tong, Alice Qin, John Marc Desengano, Conor Gallacher and Emily Tomlins.
Rose Pidd – Production Manager, Finn Carter - Stage Manager, Adelaide Fisher – Producer, Kevin Chian - Mandarin Surtitles, Samad Shiraz - Assistant Director, Catherine O’Donoghue - Stage Manager (WA), Hardik Mehta – AV Assistant.
Image by Pia Johnson.
BOORLOO/PERTH SEASON
14 - 17 DECEMBER 2022
STUDIO UNDERGROUND
STATE THEATRE CENTRE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
www.artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au/venues/state-theatre-centre-of-wa/whats-on/enlightenment/f
NAARM/MELBOURNE SEASON
10 - 20 MARCH 2021
MAIN HALL, NORTHCOTE TOWN HALL
PRESENTED BY DAREBIN ARTS SPEAKEASY
(The Enlightenment of the Siddhartha Gautama Buddha and the Encounter with the Monkey King - Great Sage, Equal of Heaven)
By Joe Paradise Lui
Produced by Elbow Room
The most important human being ever born. The most powerful creature ever to exist. Somewhere in our city, they’re about to hook up.
Sid’s life is objectively perfect, but utterly empty. Meanwhile, Sage hustles every waking minute against encroaching poverty and desperation. When they meet and fall in love, it’ll change the world, threatening the destruction of cosmic order (ya know, that thing that safeguards all those privileges that we so richly deserve).
Singapore-born, Perth-based artist Joe Paradise Lui returns to the towering stories of his childhood, reimagining the young prince Siddhartha, and the magical Monkey from ‘Journey to the West’ as young women in contemporary Australia.
Part romantic comedy, part crime saga, and part cosmic fever dream, ‘Enlightenment' is a dark, hilarious, and moving parable from one of Australia’s true renegade artists. Don’t miss its premiere production by acclaimed Melbourne theatre-makers Elbow Room, designed by Perth artist Cherish Marrington, and featuring illustrations by renowned artist and activist 巴丢草 (Badiucao), the subject of 'China's Artful Dissident'.
Performed in English with Mandarin surtitles.
中文演出，英文字幕。
Team:
Joe Lui – Writer, Sound and Lighting Designer, Marcel Dorney – Director, Jamie Lewis – Cultural Consultant, 巴丢草 (Badiucao) – Illustrator, Cherish Marrington – Production Designer.
Performed by Merlynn Tong, Alice Qin, John Marc Desengano, Conor Gallacher and Emily Tomlins.
Rose Pidd – Production Manager, Finn Carter - Stage Manager, Adelaide Fisher – Producer, Kevin Chian - Mandarin Surtitles, Samad Shiraz - Assistant Director, Catherine O’Donoghue - Stage Manager (WA), Hardik Mehta – AV Assistant.
Image by Pia Johnson.
BOORLOO/PERTH SEASON
14 - 17 DECEMBER 2022
STUDIO UNDERGROUND
STATE THEATRE CENTRE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
www.artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au/venues/state-theatre-centre-of-wa/whats-on/enlightenment/f
NAARM/MELBOURNE SEASON
10 - 20 MARCH 2021
MAIN HALL, NORTHCOTE TOWN HALL
PRESENTED BY DAREBIN ARTS SPEAKEASY
SHOWS IN DEVELOPMENT
TECHNIQUE
First presentation completed - Meat Market Stables, Naarm/Mebourne, 27 Sept - 1 Oct 2022
Writer and Director: Marcel Dorney
Performer and creator: Emily Tomlins
Set and Costume Design: Zoe Rouse
Sound Design: Chris Wenn
Lighting Design: Kris Chainey
Producers: Samantha Butterworth and Adelaide Fisher
Technique is a new science-fiction theatre work for a single performer, created by award-winning Melbourne company Elbow Room. The work explores how humanity’s future is affected by a groundbreaking reproductive method involving artificial intelligence - but not cis-men.
Technique was initially conceived in 2013, as part of Now More Than Ever, the third part in Elbow Room’s trilogy exploring the role of the religious impulse in the contemporary world. This section of the show imagined a scientist who has played a key role in discovering how to produce a viable human embryo from the fusion of two ova. As a scientific discovery, this possibility breaks open vast new potential to reproductive rights; politically, it becomes one of the most dangerous discoveries in history.
Technique explores human resilience, our need for connection, along with our consistent strive for change. Addressing new and dangerous modes of thought whilst using speculative fiction, Technique speaks to the endless possibilities of humanity.
First presentation completed - Meat Market Stables, Naarm/Mebourne, 27 Sept - 1 Oct 2022
Writer and Director: Marcel Dorney
Performer and creator: Emily Tomlins
Set and Costume Design: Zoe Rouse
Sound Design: Chris Wenn
Lighting Design: Kris Chainey
Producers: Samantha Butterworth and Adelaide Fisher
Technique is a new science-fiction theatre work for a single performer, created by award-winning Melbourne company Elbow Room. The work explores how humanity’s future is affected by a groundbreaking reproductive method involving artificial intelligence - but not cis-men.
Technique was initially conceived in 2013, as part of Now More Than Ever, the third part in Elbow Room’s trilogy exploring the role of the religious impulse in the contemporary world. This section of the show imagined a scientist who has played a key role in discovering how to produce a viable human embryo from the fusion of two ova. As a scientific discovery, this possibility breaks open vast new potential to reproductive rights; politically, it becomes one of the most dangerous discoveries in history.
Technique explores human resilience, our need for connection, along with our consistent strive for change. Addressing new and dangerous modes of thought whilst using speculative fiction, Technique speaks to the endless possibilities of humanity.
PAST PRODUCTIONS
Image by Tony Gwynn-Jones
WHAT I'M HERE FOR
Co-creators: Emily Tomlins, Marcel Dorney + Colin Smith
Creative Producer: Samantha Butterworth
PRESENTED WITH FLOWSTATE, SOUTH BANK, BRISBANE
Wed 21, Nov — Sun 02, Dec 2018
I ride your river under the bridge
I take your boat out to the reach
‘Cause I love that engine roar
But I still don’t know what I’m here for… – The Go-Betweens
Come on a secret journey through South Bank at dusk, through the history and future of a place some people call Brisbane. Award-winning theatre company Elbow Room invites you on an immersive and fascinating guided tour through our past, present and future. Elbow Room’s Artistic Directors Emily Tomlins and Marcel Dorney are pleased and proud to be making this work in the town that nurtured and stirred them as young artists. Inspired by the hidden and the miraculous in what we often take for granted, What I’m Here For will ignite your sense of wonder about a place called home.
Co-creators: Emily Tomlins, Marcel Dorney + Colin Smith
Creative Producer: Samantha Butterworth
PRESENTED WITH FLOWSTATE, SOUTH BANK, BRISBANE
Wed 21, Nov — Sun 02, Dec 2018
I ride your river under the bridge
I take your boat out to the reach
‘Cause I love that engine roar
But I still don’t know what I’m here for… – The Go-Betweens
Come on a secret journey through South Bank at dusk, through the history and future of a place some people call Brisbane. Award-winning theatre company Elbow Room invites you on an immersive and fascinating guided tour through our past, present and future. Elbow Room’s Artistic Directors Emily Tomlins and Marcel Dorney are pleased and proud to be making this work in the town that nurtured and stirred them as young artists. Inspired by the hidden and the miraculous in what we often take for granted, What I’m Here For will ignite your sense of wonder about a place called home.
Image by Yunis Tmeizeh
PREHISTORIC
Written by Marcel Dorney
July 20 - 27 2018, The Meat Market (VIC)
August 1 - 26 2018, Summerhall (UK)
November 2013, Metro Arts (QLD)
September 2014, The Loft, Brisbane Festival
September 2014, Northcote Town Hall (VIC)
A blistering punk theatre gig about our civil liberties and our capacity to resist – with an original soundtrack played live.
In Brisbane, Australia, 1979, Prehistoric follows Deb, Nick, Pete and Rachel as they meet at a gig, start a band, and find out – the hard way – why their town stays so quiet. Based on first-hand accounts of living, playing music, and making history under Queensland’s notoriously corrupt and brutal Bjelke-Petersen government, Prehistoric offers an iconoclastic and hilarious take on the pivotal ‘punk moment’ that still echoes today.
Winner of Best Performance award – Melbourne Fringe Festival
'Exhiliarating, gut-wrenching, evocative... leaves you giddy with excitement and feeling utterly alive.'
- Richard Watts, Artshub/RRR
Written by Marcel Dorney
July 20 - 27 2018, The Meat Market (VIC)
August 1 - 26 2018, Summerhall (UK)
November 2013, Metro Arts (QLD)
September 2014, The Loft, Brisbane Festival
September 2014, Northcote Town Hall (VIC)
A blistering punk theatre gig about our civil liberties and our capacity to resist – with an original soundtrack played live.
In Brisbane, Australia, 1979, Prehistoric follows Deb, Nick, Pete and Rachel as they meet at a gig, start a band, and find out – the hard way – why their town stays so quiet. Based on first-hand accounts of living, playing music, and making history under Queensland’s notoriously corrupt and brutal Bjelke-Petersen government, Prehistoric offers an iconoclastic and hilarious take on the pivotal ‘punk moment’ that still echoes today.
Winner of Best Performance award – Melbourne Fringe Festival
'Exhiliarating, gut-wrenching, evocative... leaves you giddy with excitement and feeling utterly alive.'
- Richard Watts, Artshub/RRR
