Australian talent to light up 75th Edinburgh International Festival

Edinburgh International Festival is an annual celebration of world-class dance, opera, music and theatre which this year celebrates 75 years of bringing world cultures together.

This year we will see the largest ever Australian contingent to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Performances include the Australian World Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta; Gravity & Other Myths in MACRO and The Pulse; the European premiere of You Know We Belong Together by Julia Hales; a tale of Sri Lanka post-independence and Australia as an immigrant nation in S. Shakthidharan’s Counting and Cracking; didgeridoo player William Barton with the Chineke! Chamber Ensemble; and violist Brett Dean performs alongside the Hebrides Ensemble.

Opening Night: Gravity & Other Myths

Critically acclaimed circus and physical theatre company Gravity & Other Myths is joined by First Nations dance company Djuki Mala, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Scottish musicians including Aidan O’Rourke, Brìghde Chaimbeul and Kathleen MacInnes for MACRO – a spectacular free opening event at BT Murrayfield.

Staged Productions

Featuring 19 different performers hailing from six different countries, Counting and Cracking follows the journey of one Sri Lankan-Australian family over four generations, from 1956 to 2004. Written by S. Shakthidharan, a Sri Lankan-Australian who researched and developed the work over the course of ten years, the play tells the tale of two countries: Sri Lanka post-independence and Australia as an immigrant nation. It is directed by award-winning Eamon Flack, Artistic Director of Belvoir, one of Australia’s most celebrated theatre companies.

Australian actor and presenter Julia Hales has watched every single episode of Home and Away, but she’s never seen a person with Down Syndrome in the cast. In You Know We Belong Together, Julia and a cast of six actors put their own lives on stage, sharing their experiences through monologues, sketches, video, dance and song to call for greater inclusivity for a community rarely represented on stage or screen.

Classical Music

Performances include the Australian World Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta; didgeridoo player William Barton with the Chineke! Chamber Ensemble; and violist Brett Dean performs alongside the Hebrides Ensemble.

Full UK / Australia Season Programme

• 5 August
  The festival’s spectacular free opening event Macro sees acclaimed Australian circus company Gravity & Other Myths joined by First Nations dance company Djuki Mala, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and a host of Scottish musicians.
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• 8 – 9 August
  The Pulse by Gravity & Other Myths combines acrobats with a choir of thirty voices.
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• 8 – 11 August
  UK premiere of award-winning play Counting and Cracking by Sydney theatre company Belvoir, which explores Australia as an immigrant nation and Sri Lanka post-independence.
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• 12 August
  Chineke! Chamber Ensemble perform with digeridoo virtuoso William Barton.
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• 19 August
  The UK debut performance by the Australian World Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta and featuring Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg.
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• 20 August
  Violist Brett Dean performs with and conducts the Hebrides Ensemble.
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• 24 – 27 August
  You Know We Belong Together is Julia Hales’ deeply personal exploration of the frustrations and aspirations of living with Down Syndrome, set around her favourite programme Home and Away.
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