Shaun Parker & Company, World premiere, KING

Venue:
Location: Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre, Chippendale, Sydney
20 Feb - 24 Feb, 2019
Web: https://www.seymourcentre.com/events/event/king/

Photo by Prudence Upton — Photo: Prudence Upton

Shaun Parker & Company present the world premiere of KING, an international music-dance collaboration between award-winning Australian director/choreographer Shaun Parker and renowned Bulgarian singer-songwriter/performance artist Ivo Dimchev.

This latest work from one of Australia’s most highly acclaimed contemporary dance companies builds on Shaun Parker & Company’s reputation for combining hard-hitting cutting-edge choreography with theatrical invention and striking soundscapes.

Set in a fantastical realm – part cocktail-bar, part jungle, the piece is played out to a seductive original score, created and performed live on stage by Dimchev, making his Australian debut in the role of soulful cabaret crooner. KING begins with a gathering of young men, a show of skill, a competition. The group impress each other with feats of prowess until one among them is singled out as leader. From this playful introduction, Parker employs his trademark highly physical choreography in an articulate interrogation of male power, control and group dynamic, expertly exposing the brutality of macho ritual and the human toll of toxic masculinity.

Presented as part of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival 2019, KING offers the audience a fresh take on historic notions of masculinity and socio-sexual-political structures, in the form of a biting, yet humorous theatrical nod to a society in revolt against an exhausted patriarchy.

The world premiere season of KING opens at the Seymour Centre’s Everest Theatre on February 20, 2019 for five shows only, until Sunday February 24.

Book now for this limited season at seymourcentre.com/events/event/king/, or telephone 02 9351 7940.

Tickets $49 +BF / Concession $39 + BF.

The show will then tour internationally to a variety of prestigious venues and festivals, including Posthof Dance Days in Linz, Austria in April 2019.

The KING project will also deliver a unique skills development opportunity for 10 LGBTQI actors, dancers, cabaret artists and writers, to work intensively with Shaun Parker in his Sydney studio for two-weeks, on self-devised theatre-making.

Applications for the QUEER BITES program open mid-December 2018, details at shaunparkercompany.com/ and facebook.com/Shaun.Parker.Company. The program will take place in March 2019. KING is supported by Seymour Centre, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, Australia Council for the Arts and Create NSW.

Note KING contains full frontal nudity and adult themes and is considered suitable for ages 16+. The production also uses haze.