FARTY BARD FESTIVAL

a festival that celebrated the sillier side of Shakespeare and friends in theatre and music

Burra, South Australia May 2023

“Thank you so much for giving this festival to Burra.”

“Fantastic! Such fun.”

“I have been to many Shakespeare productions interstate & SA & this is the best one ever!”

“Great initiative for our community. Something different to anything we have been to before.”

“This was such an innovative festival…a constant delight, filled with fun. We were really glad we drove from Melbourne to attend.”

“Better than a night at the Globe.” “Nice to have a mixture of performances and workshops.”

“We also loved all the conversation and warmth with the Burra locals.”

Just after Emlyn and I moved to Burra, I got in touch with the then Mid North Theatre Group and Ali the arts officer at council and created a Shakespeare festival in our new town.

In May 2023, five performing companies, with thirty-seven visiting artists came to Burra to share plays, music and a whole lot of workshops in Burra’s beautiful heritage Town Hall.

Shakespeare doesn’t have to be arty-farty. In Shakespeare’s day, the theatre was basically Netflix, all sorts of people went to see plays. So show’s were for everyone. There was silliness about flatulent dogs, ‘fa-la-la’ refrains* and how drinking makes you wee.

In music, this was a time before Spotify. Songs were written about the universal problems we all face - trying to find love or a good wine or being too old and flatulent to dance.

That’s what Farty Bard was about. People came from the Mid North Region, from Adelaide and interstate. We had a $5000 grant from Country Arts which is a ridiculously small amount of money to put together a performing arts festival. What made it not only possible but magical, was the amazing volunteer work from Burra people, the good natured flexibility of the visiting artists and the genuine warmth and delight of the audiences.

*apparently fa-la refrains in Elizabethan music are wink-wink-nudge-nudging

What did we do?

Well, here’s the original program:

IL FESTINO
concert - farty bard singers

A musical comedy Elizabethan style - enjoy the magic and nonsense of this wonderful acappella work composed in 1609 by Banchieri - a monk from Italy. It's raucous and rowdy - cheeky and beautiful. from sublime love poetry to drinking songs to a canon of ridiculous animal noises. Sung in English. With guest appearance from Burra’s own Will Peterson.

TAVERN CHOIR
workshop - farty bard singers

Pub choir - renaissance style! Come and sing a few of the greatest drinking songs from Thomas Ravenscroft, one of the most prolific songwriters of the genre. Everyone’s welcome.

MEDIEVAL MUSIC JAM
workshop - Lyrebyrd Consort

Learn to play or sing medieval music! Bring your instruments, percussion or voice and discover how to improvise music from before the time of Shakespeare. Including early English songs Miri it is and Sumer is icumen in. Everyone is welcome - beginner to advanced. If you don't have an instrument come anyway, we'll find you something.

A MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE MUSICAL SHOWCASE
concert - Lyrebyrd Consort & Cacofonix

Travel back in time to the Middle Ages and Renaissance to hear music Shakespeare might have heard. From the only surviving song by a female Troubadour to a gorgeous lament by Anne Boleyn. Not to mention jolly folk songs and merry dances. Come to hear very early music and its stories, as well as see authentic early instruments including lute, viol, crumhorn, cornemuse, vielle, rebec, oud and psaltery.

PERFORMING SHAKESPEARE
workshop - Tony Knight/MNTG

Actors’ Studio teacher Tony Knight (former head of acting at NIDA) will work with members of the Mid North Theatre Group in an open workshop on Shakespeare monologues. Everyone is welcome to come and watch one of Australia’s top acting teachers work with local actors.

LOVE, FLATULENCE & OTHER PROBLEMS
theatre - Actors’ Studio Players

Tony Knight is bringing a performing troupe from South Australia’s Actors’ Studio, to present a variety show of comic Shakespearean scenes, including a very very very abridged Hamlet. Burra local and theatre academic Dr Will Peterson will present a pre-show talk, with tips on ‘getting into’ Shakespeare.

BUBBLE, BUBBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE: THE GAME
gaming - RYT

Riverland Youth Theatre's Games Master, Jay Green runs an interactive dungeons and dragons game based on MacBeth. The party adventures through the underwater kingdom of Bryntun after a long, drawn-out war. When King Duncan is killed during the night, the room is full of suspects! Game written by Tessa Simpson. Join us for a fast-paced and ridiculous interactive game.

VIRTUAL REALITY
workshop - RYT

Perform in Romeo and Juliette! This virtual reality immersive experience gives you the opportunity to perform on a Shakespearean stage with words appearing in front of your eyes. Use virtual reality to understand staging and performance and tell your goddamn lover that it is still night and you could totally make out for another few hours before he flees the city (but in fancy language and stuff). please register.

SHAKESPEARE’S FOOLS
pre show talk- Dr Robert Phiddian

Dr Robert Phiddian (Professor Of English at Flinders University) will present a preshow talk on Shakespeare’s fools, demonstrated by some of the more foolish actors from Butterfly Theatre.

SHAKESPEARE IN THE NORTH
theatre - Butterfly Theatre

Butterfly Theatre finishes the festival with a flourish, drawing together Shakespeare’s best bits - Songs, Sonnets and Speeches exploring Love and Loss, with original music threaded through the show - composed for Butterfly Theatre by Burra's own Jodie O'Regan. Directed by Tony Knight, the show has toured wineries, festivals, theatres, pubs and parks and now comes North, with Shakespeare's insults added for the occasion.