Gertrude Opera Culture Project
A theatrical treatment of Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River
 
“In a mad world, only the mad are sane” - Akira Kurosawa 
 
Gertrude Opera’s second Culture Project, connecting opera with stories of social justice and humanitarian issues of our time, takes a Benjamin Britten Church Parable loosely based on a medieval Japanese Noh play and moulds to tell a modern tale, of a hypocritical, selfish society. Confronting the ill-treatment, abduction and death of a child, and reactions to grief-induced madness, to an exquisitely beautiful, gripping score for small chamber ensemble, we call into question society’s methods of coping with profound loss – loss of family, of house, of mind – and how we as a group treat those who think, act, or react to tragedy, differently from us.  

Dates:
Friday 29th May
Saturday 30th May
Tuesday 2nd June
Thursday 4th June
Friday 5th June
Saturday 6th June
 
Time:
8pm
 
Tickets:
$55 Full Price
$45 Senior
$39 Concession (Pensioners/Full-time students/MEAA)
Tickets available through fortyfivedownstairs.com/events/curlew-river-by-benjamin-britten/

Venue:
fortyfivedownstairs
45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, VIC
 

Artistic Director - Linda Thompson
Music Director - Evan Lawson
Designer - Peter Corrigan
Lighting - Greg Carroll
 
Cast
Madwoman - Agathe de Courcy
Traveller - Owain Browne
Ferry Man - Adrian McEniery 
Cult Leader - Belinda Paterson  
Cult of Angels:
Kimberley Colman 
Michelle McCarthy
Lisa Parker
Tamzyn Alexander
Alexandra Lidgerwood
Alissa Andraski
Piera Dennerstein
Khary Wilson
Ferryman assistant  - Samuel Thomas-Holland  
 

Orchestra
Kim Tan - Flutes
Jacinta Dennett - Harp
Phoebe Smithies - Horn
Anthony Chataway - Viola 
Kenneth Harris - Double Bass
 
Supporting Partners
Any Inc Foundation
Staging Rentals
 
Venue Partners
fortyfivedownstairs