Guilty Pleasures
Earlybird tickets for Guilty Pleasures Cabaret and Burlesque Festival are now on sale – giving you a chance for great savings on your tickets.
The first festival of its kind for our region, Guilty Pleasures takes place over three nights from Friday 12 May till Sunday 14 May at two venues: the Brunswick Heads Memorial Hall and the Brunswick Picture House.
The Brunswick Heads Memorial Hall will be converted into a stylish sitdown cabaret room for three nights of outrageous performances, which will include bent burlesque queen Glitta Supernova, glam rock burlesque band Bertie Page Clinic, Australia’s Got Talent song-and-dance man Brendan Hay, comedian extraordinaire Mandy Nolan, internationally acclaimed burlesque performer Miss Bettie Bombshell, and award-winning chanteuse Parissa Bouas.
At the same time the region’s much-loved Brunswick Picture House will be presenting a very special Guilty Pleasures edition of their famed Cheeky Cabaret – an uninhibited, bawdy extravaganza of daredevil feats and delectable divas with plenty of va va voom.To buy tickets and get the earlybird discount, simply go to the program and tickets page at www.guilty-pleasures-fest.com.au.
Monsieur Mayo
Monsieur Mayonnaise is an artist’s epic adventure into his family’s secret past. Australian artist and filmmaker Philippe Mora investigates his father’s clandestine role in the French Résistance in WWII and his mother’s miraculous escape en route to Auschwitz. Philippe, a Hollywood cult-horror movie director and artist, adopts a film-noir persona to tell his dramatic family story. He also packs his paints and easel, embarking on a journey to create an audacious comic book about his parents, their survival and the Holocaust. From LA to Berlin, Paris to Melbourne, Monsieur Mayonnaise is a richly layered road movie starring madcap artists, comic stories, real-life heroes, Nazi villains… and baguettes with lashings of tasty French mayonnaise! Saturday 25 March at Bangalow A&I Hall.
Genius of Grayling
Byron Writers Festival presents an evening with acclaimed author, philosopher and academic AC Grayling at Byron Theatre on Thursday 30 March. AC Grayling is the Master of the New College of the Humanities, London, and its Professor of Philosophy, and the author of more than thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays. He has twice been a judge on the Booker prize, in 2015 serving as the chair of the judging panel. He is a vice-president of the British Humanist Association, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His new book The Age of Genius (published by Bloomsbury) explains how, fuelled by original and unorthodox thinking, war and technological invention, the seventeenth century became the crucible of modernity. Professor Grayling will be at the Byron Theatre on Thursday 30 March from 6pm. Tickets $30/$35 from the website byronwritersfestival.com or 6685 5115.
Weaving Women Together
A unique cultural exchange and collaborative arts project between the Wake Up Time Women, a NSW northern rivers Bundjalung women’s textile-arts collective based in Casino, and a group of Kunwinjku women textile artists from Injalak Arts, Oenpelli, Northern Territory, will be happening in late March.
The program will begin with the traditional collection of weaving materials and dyes by the Kunwinjku women in the Northern Territory. The two-week cultural exchange will open with an official welcome to country in Casino by the Bundjalung for the Kunwinjku women where land council members, traditional owners, elders and local government representatives will be present.
There will be an introduction to Bundjalung Nation and culture that will be followed by a field trip to collect weaving materials and grasses locally.
At the completion of the two-week cultural exchange program the Bundjalung and Kunwinjku women will open the doors to offer a workshop for interested women both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
These workshops offer a unique opportunity for participants to engage and meet with both Bundjalung and Kunwinjku women, to share their culture and wisdom and learn the respective techniques of each group.
The Weaving and Cultural Workshop is on Saturday 1 April & Sunday 2 April at Clunes Old School Site,
17 Walker Street, Clunes. 10am–4pm. $245 (cost includes materials, native from both regions).
That’s the Ballina spirit
Costuming has been a major effort in preparation for the show that has been described as one of Noël Coward’s comic masterpieces. So this is how the story goes… Ruth is finding intolerable the presence in materialised form of Charles’s first wife, Elvira, who died seven years previously. She cannot see Elvira, but distrusts her fiercely, and has been unable to achieve her wish to have this rival exorcised. The rivalry over Charles is fierce and Charles is quite self-satisfied about it. He sees little wrong with being what Ruth sarcastically calls an astral bigamist. Charles’s translation to Ruth of Elvira’s words is often very funny as he sanitises it to keep the peace and fields comments from each about the other. Such humour of situation occurs throughout the play.
The jealousy is fierce in both directions and Ruth becomes more and more incensed. Written by Noël Coward and directed by Fran Legge, Blithe Spirit will be staged at the Players Theatre 24 from March till 1 April. Thursday till Saturday evenings 8pm, Sunday matinees 2pm. Saturday 1 April matinee 2pm. Book online at www.ballinaplayers.com or at Just Funkin Music, 6686 2440.
Crafting comedy
Over the last few months the Byron Brewery has opened its beergarden to the delights of craft comedy. Hundreds of people have been flocking to enjoy the ambient surrounds, have an ice-cold beer and a laugh. Home Crafted Comedy is the regular open mic comedy night and features new and emerging comedians doing five minutes of their schtick. MC is the father of four, the one-time bank manager, turned chef, turned comedian, Paul McMahon. Free show on Thursday from 8pm.
Making Jasper Jones
Screenworks present special guest speaker, co-producer of Jasper Jones, Vincent Sheehan, at the screening of Jasper Jones at the Byron Community Centre on Thursday 23 March.
The film’s co-producer Vincent Sheehan is a film and television producer and co-founder of Porchlight Films an independent production company based in Sydney. His producing credits include the feature films Little Fish starring Cate Blanchett and The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe. Vincent was executive producer on the ABC TV series Laid, Cate Shortland’s Lore and David Michod’s feature films Animal Kingdom and The Rover starring Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce.
Screenworks’ event screening of Jasper Jones followed by Q&A is a one-off opportunity to see this film and join in a conversation with the film’s co-producer producer Vincent Sheehan. For more information and tickets visit the website www.screenworks.com.au. Limited seats available. Starts at 7pm.
Older to elder
What’s the difference between an elder and a role model?
What is an elder’s role in today’s society? We live in a culture where youth is idolised and age is shunned. Old people are ridiculed, satirised, required to retire from work and later consigned to retirement homes. This year Stephen Jenkinson returns, buoyed by the extraordinary welcome he received from Byron Shire and all who came to listen, to deepen and extend the conversation. And he plans to do that in the most unusual manner with… a concert about grief and death and dying! He invites you to A Night of Grief & Mystery.
This year on Friday 24 March, 7pm at Bangalow A&I Hall, you are invited to A Night of Grief & Mystery. There are stories: delivered slowly, elegantly, with grace and humour, depth and honesty. There are songs: the melodies are memorable, haunting and beautiful.
Stephen is accompanied by his ‘band’ in the person of singer/songwriter, troubadour and fellow conspirator Gregory Hoskins, also form Canada and touring Australia for the very first time. Together they weave magic around the twin subjects of death and grief, deepening the learning, and extending the conversation Stephen began last year. He will also be conducting Elderhood Teaching, a training for elder people of all ages.
Coorabell Hall on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March.Tickets are available via the Orphan Wisdom website: orphanwisdom.com/event/oceania-2017, or for more information contact Lelli Brown at [email protected] or phone 0410 327 401.
Virgin Sacrifice
As they say, laughter is the best medicine, and jokes aren’t sanctioned and sent onto the marketplace by Big Pharma. ‘Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies. It’s the ultimate immune booster before the winter flu season!’ says local comedian and teacher Mandy Nolan.
Nolan has just finished teaching her latest crop of immune boosters. With 16 pain-relieving endorphin-releasing protegés, ranging in age from 17 to 70, there is something for everyone. ‘It’s been such a treat teaching this class,’ says Mandy. ‘We have high-school students, a stay-at-home mum, a professor, a nurse, a beer enthusiast and a whole lot more.’ After six weeks of learning the ropes through Byron Community College’s Standup Comedy class, this ribald crew will have their first comedy performance on Thursday March 23 at the Byron Services Club.
The Virgin Sacrifice will showcase their new and outrageous talents with teacher Mandy Nolan as MC. Tickets are $10/15 and can be purchased online at mandynolan.com.au, at the door, or booked on 6619 0529.
