THE man behind the Sydney Olympics iconic Tin Symphony opening, Nigel Jamieson, is about to set Langley Park buzzing with a theatrical extravaganza paying homage to WA.
Many of the performers are big names even on the world stage, but they still call Western Australia home, and they’ll be back to launch this year’s Perth International Arts Festival with a free one-off outdoor spectacular, Home.
Flying in from his US base, musician/comedian Tim Minchin will join a stellar line-up including academy award winning illustrator/writer Shaun Tan, acclaimed authors Tim Winton and Robert Drew and Aboriginal elder, musician and artist Dr Richard Walley, along with John Butler, the Drones, Triffids and Waifs, Broome’s Pigram Brothers, Kavisha Mazzella and Grace Barbe.
“I can’t wait to come home for Home. It is incredibly exciting and moving to be involved in a home-grown event on this awesome scale,” Minchin said in a press release.
Almost 60 metres of staging, giant projectors and TV screens, massive stages, 100 Aboriginal dancers and 5000 house shaped lanterns made by local school kids are set to have the park pulsating.
“Langley Park is the biggest space we could find to use,” theatre director Jamieson tells the Voice.
No idea is too wild for the man who had performers dancing across the Sydney Opera House roof, and brought together 2000 Aboriginal performers to mark the 200th anniversary of white settlement.
He also directed the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony in Manchester and a benefit at Ankor Wat with Jose Carreras, 400 Buddhist monks and the Royal National Cambodian Dance Troupe.
Home will evoke the landscape and the concept of what “home” means to the artists – from the suburbs to the bush and beach.
“It’s a story told…though music and the spoken word, using all the senses. Think Olympic or Commonwealth Games, Jamieson says.
The free 90-minute spectacular is on at Langley Park, Saturday, February 13, 7.30pm.
by JENNY D’ANGER
Perth Voice Interactive 
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