2022 Season Launch
November 29, 2021
Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta are delighted to present an exciting new artistic collaboration in 2022, with international artists from renowned UK based theatremakers, The Javaad Alipoor Company. Things Hidden Since The Foundation of The World, an ultramodern multi-media theatre piece, and the Australian premiere of darkly comedic play Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, as part of the 2022 Sydney Festival.
NTofP Executive Producer, Joanne Kee, said “I am so honoured that Javaad is collaborating on the final part of this trilogy with Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta. Since seeing his work in Edinburgh, I knew that Javaad was an artist I wanted to work with; his work is fresh, blending the political and the technological in a mixture of live performance with media from Instagram to WhatsApp”.
Riverside Theatres Director, Craig McMaster added, “These exciting new collaborations with Javaad Alipoor presented as part of Riverside Theatres and City of Parramatta’s wider partnership with Sydney Festival, are wonderful examples of the evolving nature of theatre as a medium. I could not think of a better way to kick NTofP’s 2022 season of diverse, inclusive and innovative productions all of which exemplify the adventurous, cutting-edge performances that have been a hallmark of NTofP over the past six years”.
THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
14 to 23 January, 2022
Venue: Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres – Corner of Church and Market Streets, Parramatta
Making its world premiere in January, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World takes stories beyond the stage through powerful multi-platform creations, exploring the intersection of politics and technology in the contemporary world with a first view of both live and digital performances of this work.
Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Middle East’s greatest popstar of the ‘70s (think Tom Jones or Freddy Mercury). By 1981 he was a refugee, working in a German grocers. Six months before being found brutally murdered in an unsolved case, he performed to sold out audiences over two nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
In a world of murder mystery podcasts, Wikipedia and an Internet that presents everything in the world as knowable, we need to understand that some worlds never collide. A world where the guy serving you in a grocers is bigger than Tom Jones, the world where you can be killed for what you sing, the world of everyday life where a hit squad only belongs in the movies.
RICH KIDS: A STORY OF SHOPPING MALLS IN TEHRAN
22 to 23 January, 2022
Venue: Riverside Theatres – Corner of Church and Market Streets, Parramatta
Winner of the 2019 Scotsman Fringe First Award, Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran is also by Javaad Alipoor, co-created by Javaad Alipoor and Kirsty Housley (Theatre Royal Stratford East’s Extinct).
The global gap between rich and poor has never been greater. As the world decays, the spawn of the powerful dance like everyone is watching.
Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran is a darkly comedic, urgent new play about entitlement, consumption and digital technology, that explores the ubiquitous feeling that our societies are falling apart.
Combining digital theatre and a live Instagram feed, it is the sequel to the award-winning The Believers Are But Brothers, and the second part of a trilogy of plays from Javaad Alipoor about how digital technology, resentment and fracturing identities are changing the world.
Also presented as part of Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta’s 2022 season is:
Guards at the Taj
by Rajiv Joseph
An exploration of beauty and power, autocracy and resistance, and conflicting loyalties, featuring a heartbreakingly funny and relatable friendship tested, and broken, by extreme and brutal circumstances.
Orange Thrower
by Kirsty Marillier
A co-production with Griffin Theatre Company, and the award-winning debut play from Kirsty Marillier, directed with zest by Zindzi Okenyo. A fresh twist on the Australian coming-of-age story, this play is a joyful comedy, a curious mystery, and a poignant love letter to South African women, all squeezed into one.
White Pearl
by Anchuli Felicia King
Returning to Riverside after a sold-out run in 2019, smash-hit show White Pearl is a ruthlessly entertaining portrait of toxic corporate culture, casual racism and the complexity of pan-Asian relations, with twists, dark comedy and brutal honesty.
Nothing
by Pelle Koppe, adapted from the novel by Janne Teller
A chilling tale, in a world driven by anarchy. Pierre-Anthon in his gospel of teen nihilism declares that there is no meaning to life. Determined to prove him wrong, his classmates start give up things of importance and pile them in a sacrificial “heap of meaning”. Treasures, and much-loved things amp up this feverish gang of youths.
A Practical Guide to Self-Defence
by Hung-Yen Yang
This step-by-step guide mashes up martial arts, storytelling, and digital animations, with a contemporary perspective of growing up Asian in an 80s Australia. An exploration of how everyday racism over the decades shapes decisions both good and bad.
Riverside Theatres is a registered COVID Safe venue, please check the website for up-to-date COVID safe practices, ticket information and refund policies.
For further information on the performances and tickets to all shows, visit: https://nationaltheatreofparramatta.com.au.