PACT, INTIMATE SPECTACLE AND ALTERNATIVE FACTS PRESENT
Revival! CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident) is a three-day public program of performances, talks, screenings and discussions that take as their starting point the celebrated 2004 performance work CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident) by version 1.0.
CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident) by version 1.0 was hailed by the Bulletin as “a startling, highly kinetic, blackly comic and deeply provocative work of theatre" and the Sydney Morning Herald as a “passionate, often humorous, and ultimately disturbing deconstruction of politicians at work”,CMI (A Certain Maritime Incident) explores the so-called ‘children overboard’ scandal, Australia’s cruelty towards refugees and the politicisation of the public service.
Revival! CMI will reopen public conversations around art and activism, specifically those debates surrounding the continuing hard-line ‘border protection’ strategies now enthusiastically adopted by both sides of Australian politics.
Timed to coincide with the 22nd anniversary of its Performance Space premiere, Revival! CMI will feature excerpts from the original performance, talks, panels, exhibitions, plus four original short creative responses to CMI from artists with asylum seeker backgrounds. These four response artists artists are: Adeeb Razzouk, Omer Kay, Neda Taha and Mahdi Mohammadi.
Book individual tickets for each of the three performances or a festival pass which gives you entry to all events.
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DAY 1: THURSDAY 26 March
PROGRAM 1: “Well, it did happen”
CMI returns!
Welcome to Country led by Aunty Rhonda
Introduction: ‘Where to Begin?’ by David Williams
2 channel video (2004): ‘Well, it did happen’ by Frank Dwyer (live) and Minna McClure (audio)
Short Talk - ‘Children, Children Overboard, And Time’ by Bryoni Tresize
CMI excerpt 1: ‘Fogs of War’ by CMI artists
Short Talk - A Short Recess: CMI in context. ‘Several waves of Australian theatre about refugees and asylum policy’ by Caroline Wake
In Conversation - ‘Why Revival?’ by Justine Shih Pearson and CMI artists
DAY 2: FRIDAY 27 March
PROGRAM 2: “but we did not have the helicopter view”
More performance excerpts! Politics! Weasel words! CMI’s inspirations, context and aftermath.
CMI excerpt 2: “Evil people engaged in child abuse” by CMI artists
A conversation in the form of an interruption: ‘Creating art with refugees and asylum seekers’ by Claudia Chidiac and Safdar Ahmed
Short Talk - ‘Performing refugee stories’ by Paul Dwyer
CMI excerpt 3: “professionally and properly” by CMI artists
DAY 3: SATURDAY 28 March
PROGRAM 3: “outstanding matters yet to be settled”
Thoughts on the future (and how we’ll get there).
Introduction by Claudia Chidiac
CMI response work 1 by Adeeb Razzouk with Amy Morris
CMI response work 2 by Neda Taha
CMI response work 3 by Omer Kay
CMI video remix by Dam James
CMI response work 4 by Mahdi Mohammadi, Kobra Sayyadi, Paul Dwyer (Dramaturg) and Frank Dwyer (Sound)
In Conversation – ‘The future (and how we might get there)’ led by Alissar Chidiac featuring Adeeb Razzouk, Neda Taha, Mahdi Mohammadi and Omer Kay.
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Where: PACT Centre For Emerging Artists, 107 Railway Parade, Erskineville NSW 2043.
Getting to PACT:
By train: Erskineville Station (250m), Newtown Station (900m), and Macdonaldtown Station (1km)
By bus: 355 Bus Stop (250m); Newtown (900m)
By taxi: Erskineville Road Taxi Stand (300m)
By car: Railway Parade has unlimited free street parking -
PACT is an accessible venue, with level access throughout the public areas of the building and non-gendered, ambulant and wheelchair-accessible toilets. There is accessible (non-dedicated) street parking on Railway Parade. The nearest accessible train stations are Erskineville (5 minutes) and Newtown (15 minutes).
For additional accessibility support, please contact us – info@pact.net.au
We encourage you to contact us with any access questions and to discuss your requirements with us.
Photo credits: Heidrun Löhr
From first table photo of gallery - going left to right. Actor credits in these pictures:
Nikki Heywood, David Williams, Danielle Antaki, Stephen Klinder, Deborah Pollard and Chris Ryan.
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“one of the most significant Australian performance ensembles of the last two decades” RealTime #134, Aug-Sept 2016
Founded in 1998, Version 1.0 was a celebrated Sydney performance group best known for creating a series of acclaimed political performance works that uniquely fused contemporary performance aesthetics, documentary theatre strategies and media spectacle.
Version 1.0’s ensemble of artists made accessible and entertaining devised performances that were both political and intensely personal, based on strong research, and that engaged with significant political and social issues using innovative theatrical strategies.
Notable works include CMI, The Wages Of Spin, This Kind Of Ruckus, The Disappearances Project, Deeply Offensive And Utterly Untrue, The Bougainville Photoplay Project and The Table Of Knowledge.
Version 1.0 set out to make cutting-edge theatre that matters – theatre that challenged, informed and entertained audiences, and performances that opened spaces for public conversation.
Version 1.0 wound up in 2014 but the company’s works are widely remembered and made a significant impact upon Australian theatre. version 1.0’s first two works, The Dream Index and Where the garment gapes,premiered at PACT.
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From the Performance Space database:
"CMI was an edgy performance devised from the Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident (CMI), the inquiry into the 'children overboard' scandal. This was not verbatim theatre, but an exploration of fundamental questions at the intersection between the personal and the political. In CMI six acting Senators wrestle with their wills, their words, their politics & each other.” -
Photo credits: Heidrun Löhr
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.