Buried TeaBowl-OKUNI tours to OzAsia Festival 28, 29 Oct 2023

A Proustian, unruly one-woman show, a work of pleasure and bite. — The Saturday Paper

Buried TeaBowl – OKUNI is an intimate and epic solo performance piece. It is a fusion of dance, text, and song, underscored by dynamic visual elements, a compelling original musical score, and of course – a tea ceremony. 

Drawing inspiration from the historical Japanese female entertainer, Izumo no Okuni, initiator of Kabuki theatre in early 1600s Japan, Buried TeaBowl – OKUNI is a visceral adventure – a transcendent feast for the senses. 

At the height of her creative prowess, Yumi Umiumare, Australia’s leading Butoh artist, unearths precious sacred female powers all too often buried throughout history. Yumi’s channelling of the multifaceted Okuni (who was so powerful, yet fragile and complex) culminates in a powerhouse solo performance that refuses to be defined by genre. Furious, funny, wistful, strange, and wild. Buried TeaBowl – OKUNI will carry you on a bizarre, unruly and heartfelt journey as only Yumi Umiumare can.

DETAIL AND BOOKING

CREATIVE TEAM

Created and Performed : Yumi Umiumare
Cinematographer/ Editor : Takeshi Kondo
Composer/ Sound Designer : Dan West
Lighting designer: Emma Lockhart-Wilson 
Dramaturg/ Maude Davey
Provocateur : Moira Finucane
Producer : Kath Papas productions 
Stage Manager: Celina Mack

Photographer: Vikk Shayen

Photo by Vikk Shayen

DasSHOKU SHAKE! in Darwin Festival

Photo by Vikk Shayen

DasSHOKU SHAKE! Yumi Umiumare & Theatre Group GUMBO

Get ready to be shaken and stirred!

Created by butoh punkess Yumi Umiumare, Japan’s legendary Theatre Group GUMBO and three of Melbourne’s shock-toy acolytes (known as the DasSHOKU triangle) this is one psychedelic, cross-cultural, lost-in-translation, emo shake-up. DasSHOKU SHAKE! is the fourth work in the award-winning DasSHOKU repertoire, the unique culture-crushing dementia that has been recognised by audiences in sell-out seasons around the world since 1999. Inspired by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in 2011, this latest chapter bursts out of the earth to assault the senses. In it Umiumareʼs punk ingénue (a character that wouldn’t be out of place in the ‘60s cult series Monkey) joins a troupe of wanderers traversing the world and experiencing its shaky ground as a series of hell-on-earth fantasies. On the way there’s music, movement, merriment and just a touch of madness.

Recent Green Room Award winner for Innovation in Cabaret, DasSHOKU SHAKE! is a timeless myth told with a healthy mix of black satire GUMBO’s trademark bewildering absurdist humour. It fuses the intensity of butoh with all the entertainment of great cabaret for a weird and wonderful Festival experience from an incredible team of performers.

  " It is a riot… black humour, absurd juxtapositions and occasional poignancy with skills and thrills.” Adelaide Advertiser

    "Watching Umiumare dance butoh is like watching a stainless steel mannequin ram a knife into a toaster." Vibewire Artistic Director & Choreographer Yumi Umiumare Co-Director KayoTamura

Performers Yumi Umiumare, Helen Smith, Willow J, Harrison Hall, Kayo Tamura, Nono Miyasaka & Ryo Nishihara Dramaturgy Matt Crosby Set Design Ellen Strasser Sound Design Dan West Costume Design Kiki Ando & Theatre Group GUMBO Original Lighting Design Tom Willis Additional Lighting Design for Darwin Tony Moore Photography Vikk Shayen (Australia)& Masami Kikuchi (Japan)

HIPBONE STICKING OUT World Premier Season

3-6 July at Canberra Theatre

PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLE Jada Alberts, Simon Gleeson, Trevor Jamieson, Derik Lynch, Lex Marinos, Natalie O’Donnell, Yumi Umiumare and others from the Roebourne Community.

CREDITS: Writer/Director                  Scott Rankin Set Design                        Genevieve Dugard Costume                           Tess Schofield Musical Director               John Rodgers Sound Design                  Jeremy Silver Foley Sound Artist            David Hewitt Choreography                  Yumi Umiumare Lighting Design                Nicholas Higgins Video                                Benjamin Ducroz Creative Producer            Debra Myers Associate Producer          Elspeth Blunt Production Manager         Neil Fisher

Hipbone Sticking Out spins the globe upside down and sets its teeth rattling to the tune of The Clash, The Stranglers, Britney Spears, sea shanties and traditional songs of the Pilbara in glorious six part harmony. Clothed in hi-viz work wear and set against the backdrop of Murujuga – the world’s largest outdoor rock art gallery - a stellar cast creates a tour de force story beginning in 1602 that places the Pilbara at the centre of world history.

In the town of Roebourne a young man, John Pat, scuffles with police, hits his head on the footpath and is left in a police lockup. He finds himself travelling through time from the beginning, meeting Greco/Roman Gods, tracing the spice routes, the exploration of the Indian Ocean, the paintings of Vermeer, the pop music of 1800’s, the coming of ghost people to Ngarluma country, slavery, pearling, new law, ancient law, and the mining boom of the present. During the performance John Pat’s family hold the truth of this story in their hands as witnesses. Like all Big hART’s pieces it will make you laugh and cry and touch you with its candid authenticity.

Created with the community of Roebourne by Scott Rankin and Big hART Hipbone is delivered by a dream cast including Trevor Jamieson (Pitjantjatjara), Derik Lynch (Yankunytjatjara), Lex Marinos (Greece/Wagga Wagga), Simon Gleeson (Scotland) Natalie O’Donnell (United Kingdom) and Jada Alberts (Yanyuwa/Larrakia). The performance combines rich layered vocal harmonies, outrageous comic makeovers, messed up ensemble movement, striking digital imagery, sweeping design and freestyle costuming to create a mesmerising cosmopolitan work from the edge of the world.

Hipbone is produced by Big hART, who over the last two years has brought Canberra audiences to their feet with Namatjira and Ngapartji Ngapartji. Now the third work in this trilogy has its world premiere in Canberra as part of Big hART’s residency at the Canberra Theatre Centre.

Hipbone forms part of the larger Yijala Yala Project which is supported and encouraged by cultural leaders and the creative talent of the community in the Pilbara. Woodside Pluto LNG is the principal sponsor of the Yijala Yala Project and Hipbone Sticking Out.