Smoke & Mirrors to return to Sydney Festival 2011, after wowing audiences in Edinburgh!

smoke-and-mirrors

Sydney Festival have announced that the hit of the 2010 Sydney Festival, Smoke & Mirrors, starring iOTA, will be returning to the Spiegeltent in 2011! They also have some fantastic news from abroad…

Smoke & Mirrors gets rave reviews at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 “Smoke & Mirrors gives Edwardian music hall a modern makeover with its 21st century production values and a dash of existential despair” 4 STARS! The Guardian

“Leaves your brain short circuiting” 4 STARS! The List

“Fantastical and sometimes nightmarish” 4 STARS! The Scotsman

“Visually and aurally stunning” 4 STARS! Edinburgh Spotlight

“World-class stuff” 5 STARS! Edinburgh Guide 

Sydney Festival’s Smoke & Mirrors has had a knock-out dream season at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with rousing acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

The Guardian gave the show four stars, praising iOTA as “a remarkable presence both seductive and repellent, jaunty and regretful, malevolent and desperately sad”.

NSW Minister for the Arts, Virginia Judge MP said, “The success of Smoke & Mirrors in Edinburgh is further proof of the high calibre of artists we have in NSW.  Sydney Festival should be applauded for commissioning a local work that not only had Sydney audiences queuing up, but has wowed international crowds as well.”

With interest coming from festivals in Europe and the USA, Smoke & Mirrors can look forward to a long life well beyond Sydney Festival 2011, where it will play a much-anticipated four-week return season at The Famous Spiegeltent in Hyde Park.

Commissioned by Sydney Festival and Spiegeltent International, and created by Craig Ilott and iOTA, Smoke & Mirrors is a wickedly outrageous show featuring an eclectic troupe of Australian talent.  Drawing from the worlds of cabaret, circus, vaudeville and sideshow, the production takes the audience on an utterly unique, seductive and thrilling theatrical journey.

iOTA leads an exceptional cast as the sultry, insatiable and enigmatic ringmaster, performing a host of original musical numbers backed by a formidable live band.  

Sydney Festival is 8–30 January 2011.  The season dates for Smoke & Mirrors are yet to be confirmed. 

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Reviews of the 2010 Edinburgh season:

The Guardian  http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/aug/18/smoke-and-mirrors-review

The List  http://www.list.co.uk/article/28608-smoke-and-mirrors/

The Scotsman  http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/viewreview.aspx?id=1543

Edinburgh Spotlight  http://www.edinburghspotlight.com/2010/08/fringe-review-smoke-and-mirrors-spiegeltent

Edinburgh Guide  http://www.edinburghguide.com/festival/2010/edinburghfringe/smokeandmirrorsreview-6378

Edinburgh Festival Magazine  http://www.edfestmag.co.uk/fringe/theatre/1709-fringesmokemirrors

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Sydney Festival  http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au

Smoke & Mirrors trailer  http://www.youtube.com/user/SydneyFestival#p/search/0/-4xRmusWuIE

Photo by Prudence Upton

Larry Heath

Founding Editor and Publisher of the AU review. Currently based in Toronto, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @larry_heath or on Instagram @larryheath.