Aussie Show on Tour
As football fever envelops the world, Urban Theatre Projects’ one-man production, The Football Diaries, is embarking on a tour to South Africa.
The tour kicks off at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, on July 3 (coinciding with the FWC Quarter Finals) and ends at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, the day before the Finals.
The Football Diaries introduces a fresh new voice to Australian theatre, Ahilan Ratnamohan. Ahilan is a young Australian / Sri-Lankan footballer and artist, who makes a direct and complex address to his intimate audience.
The work, punctuated by video installations, is a personal and engaging meditation on art and sport that encompasses not only the blood, sweat and tears of a footballer, but pop culture and contemporary Australian life. The narrative, devised by Ahilan and director Lee Wilson, is drawn from Ahilan’s journal entries whilst seeking and failing to gain a professional player’s contract in Europe, and showcases his virtuoso football skills alongside his insights into an athletes’ experience of space, time and emotion.
Urban Theatre Projects’ (UTP) reputation for producing critically acclaimed and culturally-contemporary Australian work for international audiences is further highlighted by the invitation to tour this production into a South African context. Urban Theatre Projects is the first Australian company to be invited to Grahamstown’s National Arts Festival.
The Football Diaries premiered at Hackett House in Bankstown in April 2009, and saw close to sell out attendance.