The Castlemaine State Festival is a unique and engaging blend of community celebration and international arts festival. Founded in 1976 and held every two years, it attracts an audience in excess of 60,000 people to Castlemaine in the Victorian goldfields, some 120km northwest of Melbourne.
Visiting Castlemaine during festival season is an eye-opening experience. As well as the attractions of the festival – 10 days of theatre, music, literature, opera and visual art – the town itself, with its beautifully preserved gold rush-era buildings and thriving local arts scene, is charming, as are its welcoming and friendly inhabitants – one of whom gave this reviewer, a complete stranger, a lift across town at 11 o’clock at night to an out-of-the-way festival venue, having noticed me standing on a dark street corner peering anxiously at a map. Top that, Melbourne Festival!
Two and a half days in Castlemaine is barely enough to scratch the surface of the festival – let along the accompanying Castlemaine Fringe Festival. Nonetheless, here are some impressions of the festival’s performing arts program; Periscope, the festival’s visual arts biennial, is covered in a separate review.
Cornucopia!
Conceived and directed by Punctum’s Jude Anderson, the festival’s opening night event Cornucopia! was a musical celebration of Castlemaine and its community that was appropriately overflowing with talent. Trestle tables and picnic hampers replaced traffic in Lyttleton Street, with the alfresco dining complimented by a series of performances by members of the Chatwarblers, Acafellas, Castlemaine Singers, Castlemaine College Choir, Steiner School Choir, Maine Choir, 37 Degrees South, The Deborah Triangles and a host of musicians, including Penny Larkins, Carl Pannuzzo, Aurora Kurth, Casey Bennetto, Mal Webb, Alana Hunt and Sofia Chapman.
Maintaining the balance of community representation versus the participation of professional artists in such an event is no small task, especially with only a couple of rehearsals, but save for a slight overdose of choral music and a slight lag in the middle of proceedings, Cornucopia! succeeded admirably. Additionally, the bulk of the performances were focussed towards the townsfolk rather than the VIPS; a refreshing change from most opening nights where the best seats are allocated to sponsors and representatives of funding bodies rather than the local community. Festivities continued afterwards in the Clubrooms (the festival club) where nine-piece band The Black Diamonds whipped up a decadent speakeasy feel, ably supported by a series of short, sharp circus performances.
Blak Cabaret
An occasionally uneven though ultimately inspiring mix of music, dance and comedy, this Malthouse Theatre production was staged in Castlemaine for one night only, in the confines of the oldest continuously operating theatre in mainland Australia, the Theatre Royal. With the irreverent Uncle Jack Charles as MC, Blak Cabaret celebrated Indigenous culture with short performances from a range of performers including the hi-octane, commercially-minded stand-up comedy of Kevin Kropinyeri, dancer Lowana Wickham, and playwright Tony Harding, who on this particular night read his heartfelt, somewhat earnest yet still powerful poetry. Highlights included a gentle yet plaintive song in language performed by Jida Gulpilil, a short, striking set from jazz singer Liz Cavanagh, and two songs from blues singer Kutcha Edwards, supported by Tom Lynch on keys. Guitarist and singer/songwriter Dave Arden particularly impressed ‘Auntie Louise’, a melancholy number which nonetheless thrummed with deep, resonant beauty, and the powerful ‘Freedom Called’, a tribute to Indigenous servicemen and women who ‘fought for more than just their homeland/ they fought for respect/ to walk down a road like any other man/ lest we forget’.
Chants des Catacombes
Originally presented in Melbourne in 2011, Present Tense Collective’s Chants des Catacombes is a promenade theatre piece directed by Bryce Ives and Nathan Gilkes, and performed in the Old Castlemaine Gaol. Atmospherically rich and acoustically beautiful, the venue is a perfect setting for this evocative musical exploration of lustmord, in which the restless spirits of three murdered women tell their tragic stories. The lives and violent deaths of a showgirl, a courtesan and a cross-dressing surgeon (Anna Boulic, Laura Burzacott and Zoe McDonald) are explored through the reinterpreted songs of Portishead, Nirvana and Laura Marling, with musical accompaniment by Nate Gilkes (piano) and The Twoks (Xani Kolac on electric violin and Mark Leahy on drums). Performances are powerful, and are further enriched by a strong visual aesthetic and exquiste lighting (courtesy of a design team led by Nicola Andrews). The production’s weak link is its lack of narrative clarity, though this is almost made up for by the rich aesthetic, which lingers in the mind long after the last shrieks have echoed and died in the gaol’s echoing halls.
Wulamanayui and the Seven Pamanui
A spirited fusion of European fairytales and Tiwi legends and language, this charming Indigenous take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a joyous experience to watch, and not just for this reviewer, judging by the shrieks of delight from the audience, young and old. Deft and delightful storytelling, spirited performances (especially from writer/actor Jason De Santis in multiple roles, and Natasha Wanganeen as the evil stepmother Jirrakilala), and an inventive lo-fi aesthetic combined effortlessly with puppetry, pantomime, projection, music and even drag to craft a rib-tickling, magical theatrical treat. A festival highlight, and an absolute must-see when it tours soon to a theatre near you.
Castlemaine State Festival 2013
castlemainefestival.com.au
15 – 24 March
