Week 12/2025: Two days on the island
Week of 17 March 2025
This week saw the start of Ten Days on the Island, an arts festival that runs every two years in Lutruwita/Tasmania. It’s very cool. There are theatre and dance performances, art shows, live music, much of it free, running all over the state over the ten days.
I booked in for three performances this weekend, one of which was a double bill, so I guess technically that’s four!
I don’t have any photos of the shows because, well, performances, and I don’t have the bandwidth to write a lot about each show, so here’s a quick rundown of what I saw.
Two days on the island – Day 1
I went to the Salon at the Hedberg (Theatre Royal) complex in Hobart for a combined VR presentation by Atamira Dance Company from Aotearoa/New Zealand and Dave mangenner Gough and Darryl Rogers from the Northern Tasmanian Palawa community.
TOMO VR
TOMO VR was a dance performance of a story of life and death. It followed choroegrapher Gabrielle Thomas’s story of being with her twin brother in utero, from where she traveled to the world of the living and her brother to “the embracing arms of Hine Nui Te Pō, the Māori goddess of death”.
It was a moving performance, and the VR experience brought it up so close at times I felt like the performers would reach out and touch me.
Gabrielle and the dancers, Sean MacDonald, Bianca Hyslop, Abbie Rogers, Cory-Toalei Roycroft, Madison Tumataroa, spoke with us before and after the performance where we had a chance to share our reflections on what we’d witnessed.
takila milaythina-ti – Heart in Country
The second part of this session was takila milaythina-ti – Heart in Country, a show originally designed to be shown within the dome of a planetarium, so it completely surrounded the viewers. This allowed us to experience the community’s life on Country, including fires, hunting, story, sharing food, ceremony and dance, moving from day to night and back to day.
The beautiful theme of this film was of how the people’s hearts belong to Country, which is so important to them.
Two days on the island – Day 2
Sirens
My first event on Sunday was a show by the wonderful Van Diemen’s Fiddles, who I’d seen last year in performance with Mikelangelo.
This show was called Sirens, and it was a re-telling of the Daphne myth.
Mythological shapeshifters, the figure of the Siren has been present in seemingly unrelated cultures for millennia. Appearing as half-birds, or with fish-like tails and often gender fluid, Sirens were singing enchantresses capable of luring passing sailors to their doom with the irresistible beauty of their song.
Their ominous presence is woven throughout the myths and legends of the world. In some cultures, they signify life and fertility within the ocean; in others, the temptation of knowledge. However, they seem to unanimously embody the destructive nature of water — serving as an omen for storms, unruly seas, and danger.
Bringing a new approach to these ancient stories, Van Diemen’s Fiddles lend their unique sound-world to an evocatively mesmerising program of new works and re-worked historical compositions based on tales from Japan, Germany, ancient Greece, and current-day Lutruwita/Tasmania.
It was an intense and enchanting performance. The music was accompanied by Jane Longhurst’s narration of a new version of of the Daphne myth by Isabel Howard and Van Diemen’s violinist Emily Sheppard. This version has an alternative ending where Daphne seeks refuge in the sea, and formed the premise of this show.
I loved the line “The water swallowed sunlight”, and I would love to see this performance again. There was so much to see and hear and notice. At times some of the visuals reminded me of a series of photos I’ve been making, which made me happy.
Twelfth Night
My final experience of the weekend was something unlike anything else I saw this weekend, or have probably ever seen.
This was Table Top Shakespeare, presented by Forced Entertainment from the UK.
It’s Shakespeare literally performed on a table top. An actor tells the story, and the characters are represented by everyday kitchen and supermarket items such as glasses, vases, tools, and containers of salad dressing, salt and tic tacs.
You can get the idea here.
I’d wanted to see Macbeth on Friday night but it was sold out so I chose Twelfth Night on Sunday afternoon because I’d seen it earlier this year in the Botanical Gardens.
There wasn’t a huge crowd so they suggested we all move to the centre of the studio and to the front rather than stay in our allocated seats, so everyone could be close to the action. (“Some of the actors are quite small,” said the performer.)
This was hilarious! Having recently seen the play so the story was front of mind, I knew what to expect and how the story would go. This meant I could enjoy the telling and the use of the various bits and pieces to be the characters without having to remember who they all were and what they were doing.
I laughed a lot.
Summary of the week
Habit tracker
- Go outside & exercise first thing (7 days): 7/7
- 15 minutes morning exercise sequence (7 days): 6/7
- Hip exercises (5 days): 5/5
- 2 walks or bike rides or a combination (6 days): 5/6
- Long walk (1 day): 0/1
- Walk 8,000 steps (7 days): 7/7
- 9.00 shutdown & dim lights (6 days): 4/6
- Evening routine (6 days): 4/6
What did I learn this week?
The myth of Daphne (A summary from Van Diemen’s Band):
Apollo, powerful Olympian god of music, poetry, and archery, dares to mock Cupid’s archery skills. In retaliation, Cupid takes two arrows from his quiver – one gold-tipped, to ignite infatuation, and one lead-tipped, to command revulsion.
He shoots Apollo with the golden arrow, then turns to the beautiful nymph Daphne, and shoots her with the leaden one. Thus begins a chase of unrequited lust. Daphne avoids Apollo’s pursuit by turning into a laurel tree.
This story explores themes of power dynamics, consent, and the lengths one might go to to remain free. In the original myth, Daphne’s ultimate expression of her own will is to become a tree.
What did I notice this week?
This sign on the side of the former Welcome Stranger Hotel.
Net Mender’s lane.
When I first saw this sign, I thought Net Mender was a person and ‘Net’ was like a variation of ‘Nat’.
Then I thought about it . . .
What was the best thing this week?
Has to be Twelfth Night. It was so funny!
What am I reading this week?
- The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott
- Slow Productivity by Cal Newport;
- Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
What am I watching this week?
- Australian Survivor
- Alan Carr: Changing Ends
- TOMO VR (Atamira Dance Company)
- takila milaythina-ti – Heart in Country (Dave mangenner Gough and Darryl Rogers)
- Van Diemen’s Band: Sirens
- Table Top Shakespeare Twelfth Night by Forced Entertainment
What am I listening to this week?
Random instrumental dance music playlists
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