Brink Productions strives to communicate complex ideas and feelings with simplicity and insight, in forms that are surprising, challenging, thought-provoking and enriching.
Brink's repertoire includes epic narrative, re-imagined classics, music theatre and children's theatre.
Their acclaimed production When the rain stops falling, which made its debut during the 2008 Adelaide Festival, raised the bar for theatre in Australia and continues to be performed around the country.
Under the inspired artistic direction of Chris Drummond, Brink creates powerfully imaginative theatre through enriching collaborations with artists and non-artists from different disciplines and backgrounds.
c/-Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre King William Road Adelaide 5000 Phone: 08 8211 6565 Fax: 08 8211 6513
Leading South Australian theatre company Brink Productions has unveiled its 2011 program.
Featuring the world premieres of two new works, Skip Miller’s Hit Songs by Sean Riley and Land & Sea by Nicki Bloom, the program remains true to Brink’s signature collaborative style while diving head on into vibrant performance traditions and alternate realities.
Artistic Director, Chris Drummond said of the works, “Skip Miller's Hit Songs is a piece from the heart. It has been created from a rich pool of theatrical images and stories drawn from the people of Burundi, Liberia, South Africa, Senegal and Australia. With this work we’re not attempting to address enormous geo-political issues, so much as paint portraits of people caught between two worlds. For the Brink cast and crew it has become a work of tremendous passion.”
Whereas Skip Miller’s Hit Songs is grounded in African and Australian culture, Land & Sea is a departure from reality. “The theatrical equivalent of an optical illusion, Land & Sea is like walking through an Escher painting or living in a dream. Immersing yourself in new worlds where anything is possible has been an exciting process for the artists and we’re looking forward to sharing it with an audience”, said Drummond.
Skip Miller’s Hit Songs
By Sean Riley
Adelaide Fringe 2011
Skip Miller doesn’t take pretty pictures but he collects good music. A celebrated frontline photojournalist, he has spent years documenting the war zones of Africa and the faces of the dispossessed. A multinarrative ensemble work for African and Australian actors and musicians, Skip Miller’s Hit Songs is an intimate, honest and open-hearted exploration of lives caught between two worlds.
Land & Sea
By Nicki Bloom
A gun. A bath. A telephone. An island.
The island is all Vera has ever known. She lives with her father, a man who lights stars in the darkness, paints clouds in the sky and conjures the evening tide. One night after a storm a young man washes up on the shore, half dead... Inspired by concepts of strange loops, alternate realities and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Land & Sea is exciting, kaleidoscopic theatre.
Skip Miller’s Hit Songs will run from 12 February to 6 March at the Odeon Theatre, Norwood as part of Adelaide Fringe 2011, with Land & Sea programmed for an 8 November opening at Space Theatre, Adelaide
Festival Centre. Tickets for both shows are on sale through BASS from 1 December, with tickets for Skip Miller’s Hit Songs also available through FringeTIX from 8 January.
Brink Productions creates original theatre through long-term collaborations with artists and non-artists from different disciplines and backgrounds.
Audiences will be spellbound when Brink Productions’ multi‐award‐winning production of When The Rain Stops Falling, by Andrew Bovell, returns to Adelaide this October for five shows only.
Directed by Chris Drummond When The Rain Stops Falling takes audiences on an unforgettable journey, from a claustrophobic London flat, to the windswept coast of South Australia and into the heart of the Australian desert, tracing a familial story of what we do to each other, what we do to the planet and the legacy we leave behind.
Alice Springs in the year 2039. A fish falls from the sky and lands at the feet of Gabriel York. It still smells of the sea. It's been raining for days and Gabriel knows something is wrong. Eighty years earlier, his grandfather, Henry Law predicted that, in 2039, fish would fall from the sky heralding a great flood that would overcome the human race. When The Rain Stops Falling spans two continents,80 years and four generations of one family in an epic piece of theatrical storytelling.
Brink Productions’ artistic director Chris Drummond says, “The success of this production has been overwhelming. We knew that we had an amazing story to tell, so for audiences everywhere to embrace it so wholeheartedly has been really marvellous. It really left people wanting more. It will make you laugh and cry and gasp out loud. When The Rain Stops Falling is a story that captures the collective dreaming of a group of artists and profoundly communicates that dream to its audience.”
When The Rain Stops Falling which had its world premiere in Adelaide in 2008, was the theatrical hit of the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts that year and went on to win a swathe of local and national awards. Brink’s celebrated production has been seen and loved by more than 56,000 people throughout the nation. New productions of the Brink‐commissioned script were produced by Almeida Theatre in London in 2009 as well as Lincoln Center Theater in New York and Silo Theatre in Auckland during 2010. It will have it first foreign language premiere in Germany in December 2010.
When The Rain Stops Falling, will play at Her Majesty's Theatre from 14 October to 16 October 2010 with one preview only on 13 October. Live captioning will be provided on Friday 15 October for deaf and hearing‐impaired patrons. Tickets are available through BASS on 131 246 or www.bass.net.au.
Get ready for the funniest, juiciest most disturbing theatre experience of 2010 as Brink Productions’ hilariously unsettling Harbinger, by Matthew Whittet, has its world premiere on August 31 at Space Theatre.
Harbinger, directed by Chris Drummond and starring Nathan O’Keefe, Alex Menglet and Yael Stone follows the story of characters Maddy and Chris after they meet in thrilling circumstances and embark on a journey into the night.
It is a rare and thrilling treat when contemporary blood-soaked horror disgraces the stage, and Harbinger does just that. Harbinger premieres at the Space Theatre on 31 August and plays through to 11 September (previews from August 27). Tickets are available through BASS on 131 246 or www.bass.net.au.
Brink Productions has recently launched a new brand identity, designed in collaboration with leading integrated communications company slipperyfish.
Under the dual leadership of Chris Drummond, Artistic Director, and Kay Jamieson, Executive Producer, Brink’s new brand aligns more closely with the ethos and the image of the company. The new look features a hand-made ‘Brink’ photographed in several environments – reinforcing that every Brink word is different and unexpected.
“We knew slipperyfish was the right fit for Brink for several reasons,” Kay Jamieson said. “They told us that in their world collaboration is paramount, that they create work that’s truly original, unexpected and highly effective and that we could expect to see traditional and non-traditional answers to our marketing needs.”
Brink also officially announced its 2010 program featuring the world premiere of Harbinger by Matthew Whittet; a return season of the widely acclaimed When The Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell, a collaboration with Hossein Valamanesh and Brink Productions; and the 2011 world premiere of Skip Miller’s Hit Songs.
Harbinger promises a thrilling 'boy meets girl, girl eats boy' love story, while the much-loved return season of When The Rain Stops Falling presents an epic piece of theatrical storytelling that has already been hailed by critics as an Australian classic. Skip Miller's Hit Songs is a multi-narrative ensemble work for African and Australian actors and musicians.
Chris Drummond explained the connections and differences between each of the three works.
"While they may be very different in terms of their style, what these three shows have in common is a tremendous sense of theatricality. Each show, in different ways, has an unexpected twist in the tale. Where one is truly hilarious another may be powerfully confronting, but all of them will touch the hearts and minds of those who experience them."
GORGE '09 joint artistic directors Daisy Brown and Chris Drummond and Brink Productions have announced the nightly program line-up of new works and performers.
GORGE '09 - a bold, interactive mini-fest of performance and spoken word will be held from 19 to 21 November at 7.30pm in the Space Theatre. Each night offers a new theatrical world.
Thursday 19 November will see Alirio Zavarce's piece, Conflict Under an Australian Quilt interpreted separately by Aidan Munn and Daniel Clarke.
Friday 20 November Matthew Cormack's Like Brothers in a Bathtub will be interpreted by Unreasonable Adults and TheimaGen.
And on Saturday 21 November Nicki Bloom's Footsoldiers will be interpreted by Real Time Collaborators and Stone/Castro.
Adelaide chanteuse Libby O’Donovan is the special guest host/performer for GORGE '09 with musical accompaniment by Matthew Carey.
COME on all 3 nights and be thoroughly GORGEd!