During the 2015 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Darebin Arts' Speakeasy will transform Northcote Town Hall into a Northside festival hub with nine must-see comedies, including Daniel Kitson, Paul Verhoeven, Sameena Zehra and side-splitting kids comedy.
Presenting a cross-section of family-friendly laughs, political satire, black comedy and intellectual humour, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival will come to life in this one-stop-shop for all laugh-lovers from Wednesday 25 March - Sunday 19 April, 2015.
"In three short years, Darebin Arts has transformed Northcote Town Hall into a major destination during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with an annual season of top shelf, award winning, side splitting shows," said Vanessa Pigrum, Manager Creative Culture Darebin City Council. "This year we are proud to present some of the best local talent and international all-stars, including the world premiere of Daniel Kitson's new play Polyphony, children's favourites Sabrina D'Angelo and Matty Grey and up and coming theatrical innovators Emily Taylor, Justin Kennedy and Sarah Collins."
After 2014's recreational jaunt and 2013's "low key work in progress spectacular",
Daniel Kitson - long time scallywag and recent convert to getting around on a bike - returns to Melbourne with an actual, written, finished, practiced show for the first time since 2012. Using ingenious pre-recorded script excerpts on a retro tapedeck, Kitson's Polyphony plays Northcote Town Hall's Main Hall from Wednesday 25 March - Sunday 19 April, 2015.
Daniel Kitson said of his new work Polyphony:
I have written a Play.
It has a pretty epic scope, a relatively grand vision and somewhere in the region of twenty characters. It is, in short, a real humdinger.
Unfortunately though, it is a script, so ambitious, so demanding, so exquisitely detailed that handing an actor this text and putting them in front of an audience is much like handing a three year old child a pint of coffee and putting them in front of a zipwire.
It won't end well.
So I, ever vigilant, have pre-recorded each actor, in isolation, onto a separate tape, their fallibility erased with editing and their odious need for attention mitigated by the removal of the audience. Leaving, a litany of individual voices - each one perfect and captured on a tape that when played back in precise unison will form a glorious theatrical polyphony.
The play is perfect.
The tapes are perfect.
I just need enough people to press play. That's all.
Alongside Kitson is a swagbag of comedic delights, including Triple J's Paul Verhoeven, who returns with a new show about telling lies and their ripple effect on his life, and the politically-charged Sameena Zehra, whose 2014 show Tea with Terrorists was hailed as storytelling of great "fluency, intensity and vivacity" (The Age).
Northcote Town Hall will also be a centre of kids entertainment during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with Darebin Arts' flagship children's program LoudMouth offering family-friendly laughs during the day during the school holidays. From a girl and her pigeon searching for a lost mum, to a grossed-out mock Game Show, there is something for even the most discerning young tastes.
Darebin Arts' Speakeasy program of independent theatre is the home of cutting-edge performing arts north of the Yarra. Presenting a year-round program of new, exciting and dangerous theatre productions from around Australia, Speakeasy seeks to enliven the greater Melbourne area with world-class art and performances.
"Daniel Kitson may be widely regarded (especially among his peers) as the finest stand-up of his generation" - The Guardian
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Polyphony: A Play by
Daniel Kitson
Presented by Darebin Arts' Speakeasy
10pm, Wednesday 25 March - Sunday 19 April, 2015
11am, Saturdays; No shows on Fridays
Opening Night: 10pm, Thursday 26 March, 2015
Northcote Town Hall, Main Hall
For tickets and more information on full Melbourne International Comedy Festival season at Northcote Town Hall visit
darebinarts.com.au/speakeasy or call 03 9481 9500.
