It’s become an annual event that flags a year-long season of stimulating modern theatre, comedy, physical circus, cabaret, music, and more.
NORPA’s 2016 season was launched at the end of February, with the first show, comedian Hannah Gadsby’s Dogmatic, set to kick off the season on 18 March. Following in succession are kids’ comics The Listies, Nazeem Hussain’s acclaimed solo show Legally Brown, and writer Reg (Last Cab to Darwin) Cribb’s new play, Thomas Murray & The Upside Down River, a play based on five generations of a family living along the Darling River.
Sugarland is another play, this one set in Katherine, NT and focusing on very different 16-year old girls, one Aboriginal, the other not, who share a love for music.
The 52-Storey Treehouse, based on the children’s bestseller by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, is a highly engaging, 1-hour play for young audiences, starting at 6.00pm.
Everything in a NORPA year is a highlight, but among the standouts will be cabaret star Naomi Price’s interpretation of how a down to earth, working-class singer named Adele became a global super star; the Circa company’s acrobatic opera Il Ritorno, drawing on the Ulysses myth; and the outlandish cabaret/comedienne Meow Meow in Feline Intimate, her show that has wowed (meowed?) audiences in the UK and Australia.
Dreamland, a new work by the team that created the highly successful Railway Wonderland last year, is a testament to the diverse culture of this area. Performed in Eureka Hall, devised by NORPA artistic director Julian Louis and Janis Balodis, with music by Shenzo Gregory, the play sees out the year, from 29 Nov-3 Dec.
The diner at Lismore City Hall operates before each show, with the bar serving before and after shows, and at intervals.
For more details and bookings, including good value subscriber deals, go to www.norpa.org.au
