Festival of Colour launches 2011 programme

The Southern Lakes Festival of Colour today announced its 2011 programme that features an international mix of theatre, art, dance, aspiring conversations, music and film against the spectacular setting of Lake Wanaka in autumn.

The 2011 festival includes two world premieres during the six action-packed days from 12-17 April. The first, Rita and Douglas, is a touching story about the relationship between renowned New Zealand artist Rita Angus and musician and composer Douglas Lilburn. Told through the letters written by Angus to Lilburn and the music composed at the time by Lilburn, played by pianist Michael Houstoun, the performance explores a complicated relationship between the two outstanding artists of their generation.

The second, Riverside Drive, is about growing up in the 1950’s and is based on the 1953 Mazengarb Report on moral delinquency in children and adolescents. “Riverside Drive opens up the New Zealand that we often boast about – a great little place to bring up children,” said festival director, Philip Tremewan, at the launch. “This brand-new, powerful play follows 15-year-old David, his family, his friends and neighbours, especially Rosa, and the strife that splits open his town. It’s the early 1950s and adults were trying to keep the lid bolted down, to keep society safe. But teenagers got sex and rock and roll and broke free. It’s a play with huge life, with wonderful characters and with a dialogue that is often funny and sometimes very moving.”

Other theatrical highlights include the highly acclaimed and outrageously funny Guru of Chai which won Jacob Rajan 2010 Actor of the Year together with a revival of one of New Zealand’s favourite plays, C’mon Black, based on the 1995 Rugby World Cup year.

The musical programme is diverse, featuring the haunting sounds of arts laureate, Richard Nunns as he brings back to life a long lost tradition of Maori music. Anna Coddington represents New Zealand’s flourishing independent pop music scene while The Phoenix Foundation promises to bring the house down, fresh from a successful European tour. Belgian chanteuse, Micheline, has played to sell-out houses at the Sydney Opera House and Edinburgh Festival and she brings to Wanaka her stunning collection of Jacques Brel songs. New Zealand’s leading pianist, Michael Houston, returns to Wanaka once again but this year plays a very different sort of programme, replacing his classical repertoire with the work of one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Nikolai Kapustin.

Latin passion will set the venues in Wanaka and Queenstown on fire when a dozen dancers and musicians take to the stage in Olé Ola, taking audiences on a high-energy journey from Cuba to Argentina and Brazil with the lambada, salsa, chacha and more.

Aspiring Conversations returns to the Festival following its successful debut in 2009, promising to challenge audiences as it focuses on ideas, discussions and debate. Sir Lloyd Geering and writers Glenn Colquhoun and Kate De Goldi all search for meaning and for answers to the big questions. Roger Hall ponders on how to be an overnight success in 15 years. Financial journalist Rod Oram and writer Joe Bennett tackle some of the environmental debates. Finally Moana Jackson addresses the question of whether Treaty of Waitangi claims will ever end.

Families will enjoy the quirky antics of Linsey Pollack in Passing Wind as he makes and plays instruments using everyday items such as carrots, rubber gloves and a garden hose! In 2 Dimensional Life of Her, the imaginary world created by Fleur Elise Nobel sees puppets punching through paper walls to take on lives of their own, teasing and blurring the sense of reality of audiences of all ages.

A selection of the shows are included in the Festival’s touring programme which has been extended in 2011 to include a season in Queenstown featuring Olé Ola, The Phoenix Foundation, Rita and Douglas and Passing Wind. Other centres the Festival will take performances to are Hawea, Luggate, Cromwell and Glenorchy - including Guru of Chai and C’mon Black.

For information on the full programme, visit www.festivalofcolour.co.nz. Tickets are on general release from 21 February 2011 and are available through the web site or by calling 03 443 4162.

The 2011 Festival of Colour takes place on 12 – 17 April and is generously supported by Central Lakes Trust, The Community Trust of Otago, Creative New Zealand and Aurora.