Year: 2002
Festival Director: Brett Sheahy
Significance: One of the Festival's biggest hits to date and also among its most controversial, due to the company's protest against the Howard government's stance on refugees.
The Flood Drummers by Théâtre du Soleil (2002)
Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil brought The Flood Drummers to the 2002 Sydney Festival, transforming Hélène Cixous’ Drums on the Dike into an immersive fusion of legend, ritual and Noh-inspired theatricality. Set in a mythical Asian kingdom ravaged by metaphorical “floods”, the production posed a timely question: when catastrophe strikes, whose lives are valued most?
It was one of the Festival’s biggest hits to date and also among its most controversial. After threatening to withdraw over the Howard government’s stance on the Tampa and boat arrivals, the company proceeded – but closed the season by projecting the words “free the refugees” across the set – an act that drew the ire of some and prompted Festival Director Brett Sheehy to write in the Sydney Morning Herald:
“It has always been a role of the arts to keep vigilant, to diagnose our social illnesses, and to sound the occasional clarion call for insomnia in the face of apathy.”
Year: 2002
Festival Director: Brett Sheahy
Significance: One of the Festival's biggest hits to date and also among its most controversial, due to the company's protest against the Howard government's stance on refugees.
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