BRISBANE FESTIVAL 2018 Celebrates Launch

On Tuesday, The Brisbane Festival launched its fabulous new line-up for this year's program, including even more world premieres, big-name acts and a brand new light and laser show off of the river, which will illuminate Brisbane for the entirety of the festival celebration.

Running from the 8-29 September, the festival will feature close to 600 performances (with 100 of them being free to the public) 70 shows across seventeen venues in Brisbane, involving more than 1000 artists and hundreds of volunteers. Not only that, but the festival will premiere eight brand new works from leading Australian company's including Legs On The Wall, Circa and Dancenorth, as well as two major music events at the Riverstage, performed Ball Park Music (opening night) and Violent Soho (closing night).

This year, the mammoth program is divided into three divergent acts which frame the scope of the performances with Act One revolving around the idea of gender, memory and home. Amongst these performances is Memorial, a grand theatrical experience which 'gives life to the exquisite life to each of the 215 dead soldiers named in Homer's Iliad', starring the incredible Helen Morse and a community chorus of 215 choreographed by Circa's Yaron Lifschitz, featuring a soundtrack by Golden Globe nominee Jocelyn Pook.

Performances featured in the first act include Home, a piece from the United States in which a house is magically built onstage from nothing and ends in a lively house party, Queens on King, an inner-city garden soiree in which eight real-life same-sex couples tie the knot in a public ceremony and LIFE the show, a world premiere by Strut & Fret which showcases the extraordinary abilities of the human body. Other headlines include tv personality Hugh Sheridan's return in the 2016 smash hit the California Crooners Club; Yothu Yindi and the Treaty Project, the return of Symphony For Me, Michael Leunig and The Camerata in Gratitude & Grief and Katie Noonan's Elixir.

Act Two is made up of performances which cast the individual against the forces of society, fate and nature, including Circa's En Masse, Dancenorth's Dust and Rhonda Burchmore and Rob Mills' BANG! BANG! And, the festival's closing week includes a variety of acts such as the scary movie homage HORROR; the world premiere of The Man with The Iron Neck from Legs On the Wall and the vibrant children's opera The Owl & The Pussycat.

According to Brisbane Festival Artistic Director David Berthold, "Each act has its own explosion of story, and each opens a window to the world that will entertain and enlighten. We hope this festival is altogether alluring and will bring us all together, breathing as one, as we witness artists from here and around the world working at the very limits of their imaginations to blow our minds."

View the full program here: www.brisbanefestival.com.au

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