Festival Director: Brett Sheehy
The 2003 Sydney Festival opened with Improbable Theatre in collaboration with The World Famous and their installation Sticky. Hundreds of sparklers, thousands of feet of sticky tape, a crane, fire, machinery, smoke and a full musical score took over the Sydney Opera House forecourt.
For the first time in the Festival’s history, a full program of works was presented in Parramatta, with Riverside Theatres housing the majority of performances, appealing to adults and children alike. The Festival also moved into new grounds with its Music House To House program, a music series performed in intimate venues from the Arthouse to Government House.
The Samuel Beckett Symposium, the largest international humanities conference to be held in Australia, had over 100 international leading Beckett scholars come together. In honour of this event, a series of Beckett themed performances took place during the Festival period.
THEATRE
Chronicle Of A Death Foretold
A production of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Cronica De Una Muerte Anunciada
Fundacion Teatro Nacional (National Theatre of Colombia)
Black Chicks Talking
By Leah Purcell and Sean Mee
Produced by La Boite Theatre and Queensland Performing Arts Centre in association with Bungabura Productions
The Junebug Symphony
James Thierrée
Waiting For Godot
By Samuel Beckett
Directed by Neil Armfield
Company B Belvoir
End-Game
By Samuel Beckett
Directed by Benedict Andrews
Sydney Theatre Company
Balconies
Designed and devised by ERTH Visual and Physical Inc contributing artist: Reg Mombassa
ERTH
Close Your Little Eyes
By Max Lyandvert
Fourplay, Sydney Children's Choir, Melissa Madden Gray
Sticky
Improbable Theatre in collaboration with The World Famous
Twinkle Twinkle Little Fish
Inspired by the work of Eric Carle
Windmill Performing Arts
Two-Up!: Blind City
Director: Kym Weatherly
Written by Alex Broun
New Mercury Theatre
Two-Up!: Five Stories High
Director: Julian Louis
Dramaturg: Nick Enright
State Of Play, devised by The Company
Incognita
Conceived by Rachael Swain
Co-directed by Rachael Swain and Koen Augstijnen
Stalker Theatre Company
DANCE
Mark Morris Dance Group
CABARET
Birth Of The Cool
Performed by John Turnbull
MUSIC
Music House To House: East Meets West
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Roland Peelman
Shakuhachi: Riley Lee
Kotos: Satsuki Odamura, Shoko Ono
Oboe: Antony Chesterman
Music House To House: Viola Viola!
Viola: Paul Silverthorne, Brett Dean
Music House To House: Waltz With Me
Piano: Ian Munro, Piers Lane
Symphony In The Domain
The Sydney Symphony
Conductor: Rumon Gamba
Violin: Susie Park
Voices Of Light: The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
Australian Chamber Orchestra, ACO Voices
Conductor: Rumon Gamba
Soprano: Jane Edwards
Mezzo-soprano: Sally-Anne Edwards
Tenor: Adrian McEnriery
Baritone: Michael Leighton Jones
Chuco Valdes Quartet
Dreaming Transportation
Composer: Andrée Greenwell
Singers: Deborah Conway, Justine Clarke, Christine Douglas, Miriam Allan, Hope Csuturos, Jim Nightingale, Jane Williams, Denise Papaluca, Kim Poole
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Special guest Jon Lord, with the Sydney Symphony
Jazz In The Domain
Bob Florence, Sydney Festival Jazz Orchestra
London Sinfonietta
Conductor: Pierre-André Valade
Piano: Michael Kieran Harvey
Music House To House: Blues For Pablo
Bernie McGann Quartet
Bacardi Latino Festival
Plena Libre, Yerba Buena
Hahn Premium Festival Bar
Afro Celt Sound System, Resin Dogs, Machine Gun Fellatio, Wicked Beat Sound System, e.o.n, DJ Rupture, RJD2
OPERA
La Pasion Según San Marcos
Osvaldo Golijov, Schola Cantorum De Caracas
Principal Conductor: Maria Guinand
Love In The Age of Therapy
An opera by Paul Grabowsky and Joanna Murray-Smith
OzOpera
CELEBRATIONS
Australia Day Parade
Australia Day Spectacular
Darling Harbour Celebrations
Hyde Park and Sample Sydney Celebrations
Jazz On The Water
FILM
Beckett On Film
OpenAir Cinema
TALK
Samuel Beckett Symposium: After Beckett
Keynote speakers: Peggy Phelan, H. Porter Abbott, Mary Bryden, Bruno Clement, Steven Connor, Ruby Cohn, Stan Gontarski, Gerry Dukes, Antony Uhlmann
Beckett Public Lecture
J.M. Coetzee, Herbert Blau, Luce Irigaray
Talking Culture: Behind The Scenes Of Beckett On Film
Michael Colgan, Alan Moloney
Talking Culture: In The Steps Of Dinosaur Designs
Louise Olsen, Stephen Ormandy, Liane Rossler
Talking Culture: Introducing the London Sinfonietta
Michael Berkeley
Talking Culture: Jon Lord
Talking Culture: Leah Purcell
Talking Culture: Mark Morris Talks Dance
Talking Culture: Richard Einhorn on Scoring For Film
Talking Culture: The Artist and Urban Space
Michael Riley, Craig Walsh
ART, EXHIBITIONS & INSTALLATIONS
Cloud
Michael Riley
Dancing Up The Country
Dorothy Napangardi
Dinosaur Designs
Freestyle
FRUiTS: Tokyo Street Style
Shoichi Aoki
Meridian
Artists: Aleks Danko, John Dunkley-Smith, Farrell & Parkin, Fiona Foley, Antony Hamilton, Robert Hunter, Kitty Kantilla, Peter Kennedy, Bea Maddock, Max Pam, George Popperwell, William Seeto, George Tjungurrayi, John Wolseley, Judith Wright, Jurek Wybraniec
Picasso: The Last Decades
Ron Mueck
Spaced Out
True Stories: Art Of The East Kimberley
William Robinson: The Revelation Of Landscape
Urban Tide
Craig Walsh
SPORT
NRMA Motorfest
Streets Ferrython