The Other Journey has had a few media mentions lately as one of the highlights of Parramasala 2011. Here are some snapshots from our press and links to the full articles.

Stories spice up Parramatta festival
Jo Litson
The Sunday Telegraph

Picture: Ella Pellegrini Source: The Daily Telegraph

“Parramatta will come alive with the sights, sounds and spicy smells of South East Asia when Parramasala starts next Sunday. Now in its second year, the Australian Festival of South East Asian Arts - focused around Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres and city precinct at Town Hall and St John’s Cathedral Square – will feature film, theatre, dance, music, contemporary art, daily markets and free yoga classes. One of the highlights is the immersive, multi-media performance piece The Other Journey, which will be staged on a stretch of the Parramatta River.”

“Usually people who flee as refugees get turned into statistics. I do feel they are either scorned or pitied – but I guess if any of us were in those situations we’d probably do the same.”

Full article:  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/insider/stories-spice-up-parramatta-festival/story-e6frewt9-1226174398017

The Other Journey developed by CuriousWorks for Parramasala
Chris Hook
The Daily Telegraph

Picture: Katrina Tepper Source: The Daily Telegraph

“Part theatre, part film, part art installation, The Other Journey appears an awesome trip for Parramasala patrons.“ 

“It’s not something you could say on stage. This is a way to use music and MP3 players to get across these most intimate thoughts.”

Full article:  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/whats-on/the-other-journey-developed-by-curiousworks-for-parramasala/story-e6frexmi-1226177228453

The Other Journey
Angela Bennetts
Alternative Media Group

“The Parramatta River has witnessed countless tides of displacement and settlement. For this year’s Parramasala (Australia’s Festival of South Asian Arts) it will set the stage for a retelling of one such story, told in a way few will have seen before. Shakthi Sivanathan, of CuriousWorks explains further. 

“The Other Journey is my attempt to give these lives a simple dignity and a familiarity. The way they tell their stories in the work, it’s very informal, intimate, reflective… it’s like being in someone’s living room for a night and going through a bottle of whiskey with them as you swap life stories. For the show we couldn’t include the whiskey bit of course, there would probably be some OH&S problems with that.”

Full article:  http://www.altmedia.net.au/the-other-journey/43469

And we even scored the front cover of the Parramatta Advertiser!

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If you’re in Sydney, we invite you to this very special event: The Other Journey. Take a journey with us across the face of the globe and back home again. We’d love to see you there.

This is an excerpt from the Parramasala website. Book tickets and learn about the rest of the Festival Programme via http://parramasala.com/events/the-other-journey-australia-sri-lanka/the-other-journey-australia-sri-lanka .

Sydney’s remarkable CuriousWorks is renowned for its innovative approach to creating art across many forms. The Other Journey is a theatre work presenting intimate stories by three very different people who fled from Sri Lanka to Australia.

Commissioned by Parramasala and presented outdoors on a stretch of the Parramatta River, this exciting project combines large scale outdoor video art, moving storytelling, guided tours and luscious music which mixes Eastern and Western influences.

The flowing water and banks around the Lennox Bridge will provide the canvas for a stunning art installation which maps the many individual journeys from Sri Lanka to Australia. Animated light projections, lanterns and short films will bring the river to life.

Against this ever-changing backdrop, The Other Journey will be presented at scheduled times each evening to small pre-booked groups. Audience members will take part in two different experiences. Leaving Lanka is presented to the audience while sitting on the riverbank. Through headphones and mp3 players, intimate stories will be told by people who decided to flee from Sri Lanka to Australia. Becoming A Battler revisits the same people, this time telling the story of how they settled into Sydney and became Australians. For this experience, the audience is seated in a boat which gently travels up and down the river.

Every audience member will take something special away with them, and leave something personal behind.

Passers-by can simply view the unfolding visual story each night from the Lennox Bridge.

CuriousWorks’ The Other Journey will be one of the unmissable events of the festival and sessions are expected to sell out quickly.

(See the documentary film produced by CuriousWorks, The Migrant Project at 1pm Friday 4 November as part of the free Lunch Hour Documentaries series).