Sunday Arts Magazine

La Mama HQ is back with WAR-RAK/BANKSIA Festival featuring 400+ artists and 90+ acts over one long weekend 9-12 December 2021.

After fire, the WAR-RAK/BANKSIA flower comes back stronger and more beautiful than ever, blossoming with colour and life! Inspired by rebirth, La Mama’s WAR-RAK/BANKSIA FESTIVAL commemorates the return of her iconic home at 205 Faraday Street with a free four-day celebration!

This bold, immersive festival is the perfect opportunity to showcase the new and improved La Mama with every space across the two buildings and outside in the box office area and front forecourt utilised for performance, installation, and everything in-between. With over 400 artists involved in the festival there will be something for everyone including theatre, music, poetry, cinema, cabaret, roving performance, kids events, visual arts, live streaming direct from the theatre, workshops and much more.

WAR-RAK/BANKSIA festival will include an array of sensory installations and sublime happenings by a vast range of Independent Artists. The full festival line-up will be launched on the 11th of November, highlights include:

• A new play reading by Susie Dee & Patricia Cornelius called My Sister Jill
• A line up of First Nations music and dance curated by Songlines Aboriginal Music Corporation – Including TheMerindas, Izy and Djirri Djiri Dancers, plus more.
• An opening night set by Australia’s renowned songwoman of contemporary South Sudanese music Ajak Kwai &Co
• A La Mamica Takeover of Saturday night including music, cabaret, poetry and cinema
• A full kids program that includes workshops, performance, installation and roving by PO PO MO CO and TrashPuppets and multilingual shows and engagements by Aseel Tayah
• An interactive performance by Melbourne Playback Theatre, where ideas, moments and events from the lives ofindividual audience members are transformed and brought to life by a team of professional actors and musicians
• A bilingual new work in development combining robotics, live performance and streaming by internationalcollaborators Mainteater (Indonesia/Australia)
• Performances and events by theatre veterans and elders Lloyd Jones, Sue Broadway, Kevin Summers,Dennis Coard, Sandy MacGregor, Barry Dickins and more!

  This will be the first time La Mama invites audiences back into the space after 3 and half years of fundraising, designing, and building. And of course, multiple lockdowns and a global pandemic!

  The WAR-RAK/BANKSIA festival represents the resilience, hope, community, and strength of not only La Mama Theatre and those who love her but also Melbourne’s vibrant theatre and arts scene as it navigates this exceptional time in history.