Eddie & Dion chat back stage about performing in Leviathan...

 

Leviathan had an amazing two performances at the Hurstville Entertainment Centre over the weekend, playing to packed houses. Every community performer involved did a spectacular job on their scenes, the production team were amazing and The Residents the elegant glue that held everything together. Check out some photos of the production below and keep following as we travel out to Casula Powerhouse for one performance only on 24 September!

One of the highlights of Leviathan is the 'live' silent film depicting the 1901 plague in Sydney. A few images from our rehearsal yesterday...video footage to come!

Yesterday The Residents, Stefo and Laura went out to Hurstville to listen to John Birmingham talk about his process in writing Leviathan. JB spoke about being fascinated by Sydney 'winking into history' and the importance of migration and geography to the city. Describing the style of writing in Leviathan as narrative non-fiction, JB revealed how he interviewed Dinh Tran at length, which allowed him to accurately describe the fall of Saigon and the Tran's family escape at the beginning of the book.

He also succiently summed up how many of the decisions made upon the first fleet's arrival in Sydney had a massive impact on the city today. For example the East/West divide was set in stone when Governor Arthur Phillip looked up the tank stream and said he wanted "the convicts and marines settled on the rocky western banks while he and the officers would take the gentler, more open slopes to the east"

It was an insightful hour, and great to meet John Birmingham and talk in more detail about the themes of the book...

Lucy's Chinese Dance School will be performing a traditional Umbrella Dance in Leviathan. Check out this photo of the girls rehearsing for the show...

Yesterday we did a full costume plot of the show, moving from scene to scene and ironing out quick changes, missing costumes and entrances and exits. One of the costume highlights was Tahki Saul as Henry Parkes! (below)

 

 

The Residents were then sent off to get their lines down, and Stefo went to rehearse with the Kogarah Show Band. This morning Laura, Stefo, Zindzi and Julia headed out to Arkana College to rehearse the 'Arabic Immigration' scene and this afternoon the entire team will decamp to Hurstville for a rehearsal with the Chinese actors featured in 'The Chinese Connection' and the 'Macarthurs'. And hopefully we'll have time for some more dumplings while we're there too!