Big Stuff

An evening with Eamon Flack

Evening includes a delicious 2-course dinner as well as complimentary drinks & canapes on arrival.

BIG STUFF

In 1987 Eamon Flack moved from Darwin to Cootamundra. It was the year that he turned 8 and it was the first time in his life that he had live through a winter. This year, 2019, The Arts Centre Cootamundra is thrilled to welcome Eamon back to Cootamundra for one wintry night only. It is the year he turns … well, you do the maths!

During a delicious two course meal created from fabulous local produce, Eamon will talk to us about the “Big Stuff” - how important, dynamic, Australian stories can best be told by theatre and why it is so important to fund the arts. Over a mellow local beverage the conversation will continue as Eamon will respond to our questions.

ABOUT THE TALK “Big Stuff”: There’s just so much Big Stuff – like the great mess of the world and the incomprehensible political, social and environmental situations. But theatre shows us that different perspectives are possible and allows us to appreciate ideas that are challenging and a bit wild. Through theatre we can experience the full scope of life and society. There are so many stories that have never had the special attention that theatre offers where real comedy and tragedy can mix. Theatre is so much better than Netflix and if we want to remain a self-respecting, national democracy, we have to fund the arts. Eamon will also tell us how, from Singapore to Cootamundra to Surry Hills, a shy kid came to run one of Australia’s great theatre companies.

ABOUT EAMON: Eamon is the Artistic Director of Sydney’s acclaimed Belvoir Street Theatre. He lived in Coota in 1987, on Hovell Street next door to a very old man called Bede who always wore a three-piece suit. Eamon was born in Singapore and his family moved around and travelled a lot before settling in Brisbane in 1988. He trained as an actor at West Australian Academy of Performing Arts from 2001 to 2003 and has since worked as a director, writer and dramaturg, from the Tiwi Islands to Melbourne, from Geraldton to Palm Islands. His directing credits include Counting and Cracking, A Taste of Honey, Ghosts, Angels in America, The Glass Menagerie and As You Like It. He has worked on new plays with many of Australia’s major writers, from Leah Purcell to Michael Gow, and he has adapted plays by Sophocles, Chekhov and Ibsen. His production of Ivanov won four Sydney Theatre Awards in 2015 including Best Mainstage Production and Best Direction. His productions of The Glass Menagerie and Angels in America both won Best Play at the Helpmann Awards.

ABOUT BELVOIR: Located in Sydney’s Surry Hills, Belvoir was born out of the Nimrod Theatre in 1984. Since that time it has remained a “cultural weather vane” that bridges Sydney’s alternative theatre with the mainstream. Embracing a mix of risk and tradition, Belvoir’s productions are dynamic, challenging and visionary. Belvoir Street Theatre has nurtured the talents of many renowned Australian artists: actors including Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh; writers such as Tommy Murphy and Kate Mulvaney; directors including Rachael Maza, Wesley Enoch and former Belvoir Artistic Director Neil Armfield.

Tickets $70 per head. Student Concession $40 (limited number). Tables of 10 $600