Bread Crumbs: World Premiere at 2017 Poppy Seed Festival

Once upon a time there was no happy ever after....

"Fairytale", "crass" and "black comedy" are not terms you'd usually expect to find in the same sentence. But they're essential ingredients in BREAD CRUMBS, a new dramatic recipe that has been cooked up for this year's Poppy Seed Festival in Melbourne. 

In this original play by Ruby Johnston and Benjamin Nichol, the familiar fable Hansel and Gretel, provides a conduit into an exploration of the relationship between gender roles, domestic abuse, and the scars they grind. Continue reading

Alexithymia: Audiences Look At Life Through An Autistic Lens

Alexithymia is not one the title of an innovative new theatre experience, it is a state that affects around 85% of people on the autism spectrum. Alexithymia is the inability to name or describe feelings, and the focus of a new theatre experience on the 2017 Poppy Seed Festival program.

A_tistic artistic director and Alexithymia playwright, Tom Middleditch, who is diagnosed on the autism spectrum, says alexithymia can be best thought of as the distance one is from what they feel. 

 “Alexithymia is structured to encourage autistic thinking. Each piece explores a theme borne from the condition, alexithymia, but the full experience only emerges once the audience starts to recognise the patterns between the short works. You often hear people say we are all on the autism spectrum and by experiencing this play, audiences will not only learn about autistic thought processes, but also learn how it feels and how they may have experienced these feelings themselves,” said Middleditch. Read the preview here

Peaceful Origami At Melbourne's Shrine Of Remembrance

There is a certain irony. In an act of peaceful meditation, children are invited to Melbourne's Shrine Of Remembrance these school holidays to fold paper cranes.

Origami, a distinctly Japanese art form, is widely regarded as an act of meditation or mindfulness. Read the full article on Weekend Notes