Floating off to Australia

Posted by David Ralfe (Marketing & Admin. Assistant, Hoipolloi)

Since his first ever theatre performance, in Belfast in 2005, Hugh Hughes has made connections all over the world. He’s already ticked Colombia, New York, Moscow and Helsinki off his list of places to visit, and now Hugh is looking forward to performing on a fourth continent.

In March 2009, he’ll be flying to Australia for a five-week tour, which will include eleven performances of Floating at perhaps the most famous performing arts centre in the world: Sydney Opera House!

The Sydney Opera House was designed by Danish architect, Jørn Uzton, who won an open competition in 1955. There was a slight hitch though: Uzton designed a building which, at the time, nobody knew how to build. The concrete shells, or “white sails”, which make the building so distinctive caused a lot of headaches during the early stages of the project. Between 1957 and 1963, at least twelve different versions of the design were created before an affordable and feasible solution was found. Needless to say, almost everyone who worked on the project, from Uzton himself to the tea boy, claims to be able to remember the “eureka” moment and more often than not tries to take credit for discovering it. It’s still unknown where exactly the solution came from.

Despite being a hive of culture, a cursory glance at the internet demonstrates that Sydney Opera House attracts some really tacky merchandising... Here you can send an “animated” Sydney Opera House e-postcard. Not exactly Harry Potter-esque levels of photo animation, you’ll agree. And the photograph top left seems to be of the Sydney Opera House mid-apocalypse. This is a nice little video of the Opera House, taken from the sea, but turn the volume down... what an odd soundtrack to choose. And finally, a Sydney Opera House “joke” I found on the web:

-What powerful reptile is found in the Sydney Opera House?
-The Lizard of Oz!

(If you’re struggling to get that one, as I did for a while, it might help to know that you could replace Sydney Opera House with the name of any other place in Australia. Or with “Australia”.)
But amongst all the tat, I’ve found two wonderful items: here you can download and print all you need to make a paper model of Sydney Opera House! And here’s a second one, designed by a man who calls himself “Papermeister Dooney”.

It’s Friday afternoon, so I can’t possibly be expected to do any more work this week. I suspect the rest of my day will be spent with a furrowed brow and my tongue poking out of the corner of my mouth, wrestling with fold lines and Pritt Stick, until my paper Sydney Opera House is complete. Papermeister Dooney, I salute you.

With thanks to Sir Mervs for the photo!