News: Helpmann Award for DV8
DV8 Physical Theatre’s 2011/12 touring production Can We Talk About This? won a Helpmann Award (Australia’s equivalent of the Olivier Awards) in the category of Best Ballet or Dance Work in Australia recently.
The awards ceremony took place at Sydney Opera House, where Can We Talk About This? premiered in August 2011. Gloria and Jim Newson, parents of DV8’s artistic director Lloyd Newson, received the award in his place.
The company are also nominated for a Theatrical Management Association Award for Achievement in Dance for its ‘courageous and innovative blend of dance and speech’. The TMA Awards will be announced on 28 October.
Can We Talk About This? explores some of the most controversial and politically-sensitive issues facing the West today: freedom of speech, multiculturalism and Islam – and discusses landmark incidents including Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, Theo van Gogh’s murder and the Mohammed cartoons.
The tour included a sold out three week run at London’s National Theatre (who were co-producers, along with Théâtre de la Ville and Festival d’Automne in Paris and Dansens Hus, Stockholm) in March this year.