performances
Upcoming Performances
Boho - True Logic of the Future
August 21-28, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
New Boho show based on Victorian-era photographer and polymath William Stanley Jevons and his travels in Australia in the 1850s, created in partnership with the Belconnen Arts Centre and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
Crack Theatre Festival
Sep 30 - Oct 4, Newcastle, NSW
My second and last year as co-director (with Gillian Schwab) of the Crack Theatre Festival, taking place as part of This Is Not Art, Australia’s largest media arts festival.
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Previous Performances
The Street Theatre - Underage House Party Play
Thurs 3 - Sun 6 June, The Street Theatre, Canberra
The premier production of the script commissioned by the Street Theatre. The press release calls it ‘a hormone-ridden scramble through the thorny maze of teenage party politics.’
Traverse Poetry Slam - Sun Drugs
Friday 29 April, Front Cafe, Canberra
I performed solo show Sun Drugs as guest poet for the April edition of the Traverse Poetry Slam at the Front in Canberra.
Canberra Youth Theatre - Autopsy Play Backwards/22 short plays
Tuesday 6 April, C-Block Theatre, Canberra
The CYTC ensemble presented a selection of my short works for public consumption, including Autopsy Play Backwards and a selection from 22 short plays.
Wagga Writers’ Centre - Sun Drugs
Monday 12 April, Basement Theatre, Wagga Wagga
I did a series of workshops for the Riverina Writers’ Centre in April, followed by a performance of Sun Drugs in the Basement Theatre venue on Monday 12th.
Sun Drugs
March 3 - 6, BATS Theatre, Wellington, New Zealand
New solo show Sun Drugs for the New Zealand Fringe Festival. From the fringe program: Australian artist blind presents a grimy teen romance set in the flash-flooded streets of Bubonic Plague-era Manila. All the sweeping drama of The English Patient compacted into 25 minutes and injected rather than watched. Totally free and includes DIY vibrator-making workshop.
NUTS - Hate Restaurants
November, Australian National University, Canberra.
The National University Theatre Society presented a triple-bill of Hadley and my works this November - two new short plays by Hads and my Hate Restaurants.
The Crack Theatre Festival
Oct 1-4, The Crackhouse, 5 Auckland street Newcastle
Gillian Schwab and I directed the inaugural Crack national theatre and performance festival as a part of This Is Not Art, Australia’s largest media arts festival.
Bad! Slam! No! Biscuit! - spoken word
July 21, The Phoenix, Canberra
Hadley and Andrew Galan’s broken deviant version of the Poetry Slam, in a grimy Canberra pub frequented by the ‘arts’ scene (ie that segment of town you don’t want to be anywhere near when the plague breaks out).
Virgin Labfest - Hate Restaurants
June 23 - July 2, Manila, the Philippines
The Virgin Labfest is the major original play festival in the Philippines, held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila. This year, Victor Villareal directed my script Hate Restaurants.
David Finig / DOGMATRON - spoken-word performance
June 18, Youth Earth Symposium, The Gold Coast, QLD.
David Finig / DOGMATRON - spoken-word performance
June 19, Nighttime Performance Space, Carriageworks, Sydney.
David Finig / DOGMATRON - spoken-word performance
June 20, Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba, NSW.
Boho - theatre on a bus
April 25-27, In2change, Belconnen Interchange, Canberra.
An installation performance on a bus, as part of Belconnen Community Services’ In2change project.
Boho - installation performance
March 14-15, Manning Clark House, Canberra.
The Manning Clark House Weekend of Ideas is an annual forum for debate and discussion held in the former residence of Professor Manning Clark. Boho presented a panel discussion entitled Starting Young: Young People and the Arts, and a short performance on the lawns of the house.
Sipat Lawin Ensemble - To heat you up and cool you down
Feb 18 & 27, Bobot’s Place and Penguin Cafe Gallery, Manila, Philippines.
Extraordinarily beautiful and fluid presentation of THUCY by the ensemble of graduates from the Philippines High School for the Arts, presented as a twin-bill with Martin Sherman’s Bent.
Isabelle Martinez (Christine) and Sheenly Gener (Lute) in Sipat Lawin’s thucy.
Finnigan and brother (aka myself and Chris Finnigan) - hurting no-one
Wed Feb 11, National Multicultural Fringe Festival, Canberra.
Myself and Chris performed a short guitar / spoken word set, including grabs from Roald Dahl’s The Witches, Underworld’s Cowgirl and the broken beginning to Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream from his 1965 record Bringing It All Back Home.
Boho - Food for the Great Hungers
February 4-8, Manning Clark House, Canberra.
Boho’s Australia Council-funded residency in the Manning Clark House Scholarly and Cultural Centre (based in the former residence of prominent historian Professor Manning Clark) resulted in a work-in-progress showing of Food for the Great Hungers. Hungers is an interactive re-imagining of Australian history from 1901 to the present, in which the audience may alter and change how the country responds to the challenges of the 20th century, creating a unique alternative Australia with its own distinct society and culture.
Jack Lloyd in Boho’s Food for the Great Hungers. Image by ‘pling.
Short + Sweet - After a home-brand breakfast cereal play
Jan 31 2009, Seymour Centre, Sydney.
Produced as part of the Short + Sweet play festival in Sydney.
serious theatre - oceans all boiled into sky
November 26-29, The Street Theatre, Canberra
Produced as the finale of the Made in Canberra season
Director barb barnett and a squadron of phenomenal actors, musicians and designers presented Oceans’ sci-fi coming-of-age teen-romance road-trip saga as a live radio play. The Street studio space was turned into a living room circa 1955, complete with cushions, couches and backgammon sets, with the five actors standing on stage at microphones, two musicians providing a live score and SFX, an extraordinary set and lighting design evoking post-apocalyptic Canberra, and projected animations to accompany the story. Every performance sold out (oversold, in some cases) and the feedback from both critics and audiences has been really positive.
oceans all boiled into sky. photo by ‘pling
David Finnigan (me) - who are you standing at the microphone talking to the people anyway?
Dec 4, The Studio, Sydney Opera House, Sydney.
The 2008 National Poetry Slam finals.
Eighteen spoken word artists from around Australia in the final showdown of the 2008 National Poetry Slam: representing Canberra was myself, Hadley and Omar Musa. Omar took the prize – he owned the whole crowd from the start. Really amazing effort, and a phenomenal event to be a part of.
The Straw Gods - On the Night Sea
Dec 4, Northwest Film Forum, Portland, USA.
Staged as part of the Left Field Revival.
Commandante Jay Christian and girlwoman Kellie Lynch collectively comprise Portland, Oregon’s straw gods. As part of the Northwest Film Forum’s Left Field Revival, the straw gods performed a segment from my On the night sea text as a demented tribal dance featuring bird-strippers. Of course.
BKu & Hunting Season - Robot Salesman Training Play
Nov 4-7, Belconnen Theatre, Canberra
Featured in Damned if you Duo IV: Voyage of the Damned
My short script Robot Salesman Training Play was produced as part of BKu and the Hunting Season’s Damned if you Duo 4, directed by Lucy Hayes with Tom Connell, John-Paul Santucci and Virginia Savage. It was good - healthy, shiny, swaddled in merriment and wrapped in the rich sauce of Republic-era Rome, Napoleonic Paris, 1950s suburban Alabama, a 1992 Prodigy-gig and 50AD on the road to Damascus.
IT IS A DEVIL MADE OF BOXES. tom connell in robot salesman training play.
David Finnigan (me) - who are you standing at the microphone talking to the people anyway?
Nov 15, National Library of Australia, Canberra
National Poetry Slam second ACT heat
From Jules Fleetwood’s Traverse Poetry blog: ‘At the end of an incredibly tense slam, Omar Musa and David Finnigan (whose extreme creativity constantly blows me away) drew for first place and then, after each poet performed a second piece, drew for a second time. … Both of Dave’s pieces were, as to be expected, utterly unexpected. The first, a conversation between David (who writes poetry) and David (who gets the credit) and the second, a passionate yet scientific description of how planets and moons are formed.‘
David Finnigan - Triple J Hottest 100 1996 mash-up
Nov 8, C-Block Theatre, Gorman House, Canberra
The final Hive Variety Night.
Some photos from my performance at the final Hive. I did a mash-up of the top ten songs from Triple J’s Hottest 100 1996. Photos by Deye Aus.
I think it’s worth noting that although I look like I’m having a rather massive sulk in these photos, it was a really fun performance and I had many times of fun doing it. Also note: my crotch is labelled SPIDER BAIT. The significance of this did not sink in until people began laughing. I am an idiot.