The Rabbits
Playhouse Qpac
The sell-out award-winning Aussie opera, The Rabbits, is coming to the Playhouse at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre from 17 to 20 March, so all the family had better hop along because the reviews are raving about it.
Brisbane's own beloved songstress, Kate Miller-Heidke, is in the lead role and also composed the score, with additional music by Iain Grandage. It's all based on the book of the same name by John Marsden and Oscar-winning illustrator Shaun Tan, with Lally Katz writing the libretto.
A co-production between Opera Australia and Barking Gecko Theatre Company, the production is directed and adapted by the latter's Artistic Director, John Sheedy, who says of the story set in a landscape of larger-than-life machines, native marsupials, mystical birds and white rabbits, "... Marsden's metaphorical text and Tan's highly constructed universe are easily relatable to any study of colonial history. The story provides clear and unsentimental empathy with Indigenous cultures and provides a powerful study of a people and land overwhelmed."
The Rabbits is the first collaboration of its kind under the lead of Lyndon Terracini, Opera Australia Artistic Director, and won four Helpmann Awards in 2015 - including Best New Australian Work, Best Original Score, Best Presentation for Children and Best Costume Design (Gabriela Tylesova).
The cast includes Indigenous artists, Hollie Andrew (The Sapphires), Deadly Award-winning singer Marcus Corowa, David Leha (Radical Son), Lisa Maza (The Sapphires) and opera singers Kanen Breen (The Magic Flute), Chris Hiller (Don Giovanni) and Robert Mitchell from Opera Australia.
The Rabbits is a special opportunity to introduce children to the wonder and magic of opera and will also be a unique treat for adults, with the Daily Telegraph saying it "may well prove to be one of the most important works ever created in this country."
Good to Know - The Rabbits is recommended for children 8+ years of age.
17 - 20 March $54 - $89 + booking fee
By Vicki Englund
The Rabbits
17-20 Mar
Playhouse
Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Cnr Melbourne and Grey St
Southbank
136 246
