Productions

Having reached his milestone 80th birthday, pioneering artist William Yang reflects on his extraordinary life in this epic new performance. Yang’s iconic photographs and captivating stories are complemented by a haunting score performed live with orchestra.

Internationally acclaimed Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin — a long-time friend and collaborator of Yang’s — composed a moving score especially for Milestone, and will perform live on stage alongside the Orchestra for this performance.

Yang is a trailblazing champion of Asian–Australian culture internationally. He documented the birth of Australia’s LGBTQI+ rights movement from the early days of Sydney’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras to the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 90s. Unassuming, evocative and honestly examined, Yang looks back on his vast archive of photography, contemplating five decades of social change and the evolution of Australia’s bohemian artist community.

Milestone is Yang’s most ambitious and personal performance to date. Don’t miss this one-night-only encounter with a legend of Asia-Pacific performance sharing his stories of immigration, sexuality, creativity and family.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
"Yang has produced a body of work that speaks a universal language, inviting us to forget about those differences that are only skin deep and reflect on the things that are truly important."

PERFORMANCES

Sydney Festival

Friday 10 January, 7:30pm
Saturday 11 January, 7:30pm
Roslyn Packer Theatre (The Thirsty Mile), Walsh Bay Arts Precinct
TICKETS

Asia TOPA

Thu 20 February at 7:30 pm
Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne 
Performed live by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
TICKETS

Duration 130 mins

CREDITS

Creator/Performer/Co-director William Yang
Composer/Pianist Elena Kats Chernin 
Dramaturg/Co-director Tessa Leong 
Conductor Simon Bruckard
Production Manager Neil Simpson 
Technical Director Daniel Herten 
Producer Fenn Gordon for Tandem 
Auspiced by Performance Space 

SUPPORTED BY 

Commissioned by Asia TOPA, Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Festival and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance. 

Milestone is supported by Playking Foundation and the Robert Salzer Foundation, with additional support from Creative Australia and City of Sydney.

Thank you to Lyle Chan & Jackie Thomas-Piccardi; Jeff Khan, Tam Nguyen & the Asia TOPA team; Olivia Ansell, Rosa Coyle-Hayward & the Sydney Festival team; Sandi Woo & the CAAP team.

Hero image

Photo credit: George Gittoes 

A sumptuous audio-visual experience and song cycle by award-winning vocalist, producer and multi-disciplinary artist Rainbow Chan 陳雋然. 

Drawing on her Weitou ancestry (first settlers of Hong Kong), Chan reimagines a Weitou ritual known as the bridal lament, a public performance of grief in which a bride wept and sang in front of family and friends. In this liminal space, brides expressed bitterness towards their arranged marriages and the prevailing patriarchal rule.  

Conceived and structured as a song cycle, The Bridal Lament brings to life intergenerational and cross-cultural perspectives on diasporic experiences and the complex history of Hong Kong. With a new suite of songs by Chan and direction from Contemporary Asian Australian Performance’s Artistic Director Tessa Leong, this lush and lavish work pays homage to ritual in a vibrant and dynamic world of projection, movement and colour.  

Rainbow Chan’s music and shows have been hailed as ‘genre-bending art pop’ (NME) and ‘bewitchingly elfin in the exactly the same way that those words have been used to describe Bjork.’ (The Music). The Bridal Lament, her debut solo theatre work, shares its name with her forthcoming album.

THEATRE THOUGHTS
"Ambitious beautiful and engaging...Chan’s voice is honeyed and mellifluous."

ABC ARTS
"...a celestial blend of pop electronica and Weitou melodies."

GLAM ADELAIDE
"The laments themselves are worth the price of admission on their own: beautifully sung, moving and authentic."

Performances

Thu 23 January, 7:30 PM
Fri 24 January, 7:30 PM
Sat 25 January, 3:00 PM & 7:30 PM
Sun 26 January, 3:00 PM
Lennox Theatre, Riverside Parramatta 

TICKETS

Key Creatives

Lead Artist and Performer Rainbow Chan 陳雋然
Director Tessa Leong
Choreographic Consultants Amrita Hepi & Victoria Hunt
Video Design Rel Pham
Set Design Al Joel & Emily Borghi
Costume Design Al Joel
Lighting Concept Govin Ruben
Lighting Realisers Susie Henderson and Sam Read
Cultural Consultant and Narrator Irene Cheung 張翠屏
Video Programmer Daniel Herten

Produced by Contemporary Asian Australian Performance.

SUPPORTED BY 

The Bridal Lament was co-commissioned by Performance Space as part of Liveworks Festival 2023 and OzAsia Festival 2023, with commissioning support from Carriageworks and the City of Melbourne through Arts House. Supported by George Paramananthan and ParmCo.

Warnings 

The Bridal Lament contains haze, loud sounds, low lighting, lights that change in colours and intensity, black out and flashing moving imagery.

Performance includes translation of Weitou dialect into English through open captioning.

Detailed access information is available to download below
PDF | Word Doc

The Bridal Lament, her debut solo theatre work, shares its name with her forthcoming album. Watch the clip from its first single, Seven Sisters.

 

Previous Seasons

Liveworks Festival
19–22 Oct
Bay 20, Carriageworks 

OzAsia Festival 
1–2 Nov 2023
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre Theatre 

Arts House
8 – 19 May 2024
Art House, Melbourne