Ray is a farmer. Ray is dying. Ray is falling in love. Ray has had a tough year. Ray mourns his wife. Ray meets his wife. Ray doesn’t want to live in a nursing home. Ray’s kids don’t understand him. Ray doesn’t understand why the world won’t let him live his life. Ray, played with impressive physicality and nuance by veteran actor Colin Friels, is the central figure of Into the Shimmering World – a new work commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company that makes the intimate epic, seesawing back and forth in time but remaining locked in space. The main arena of conflict is the family farm that Ray and his wife, nurse Floss (fellow veteran Kerry Armstrong) have run their entire adult lives. It’s a hard existence, but a rewarding one, contending with droughts, floods, fluctuating markets, and unruly neighbours (one dubbed “The Crook” remains an unseen presence, but a constant source of grievance). Written by 2020 Patrick White Playwrights Fellow Angus Cerini and directed by STC’s Director of New Work and Artistic Development Paige Rattray, Into the Shimmering World is a study of Australian masculinity – as were the previous works in Cerini’s Australian gothic trilogy, The Bleeding Tree and Wonnangatta. In many ways this play is a study of stoicism, its strengths and its limitations. The laconic Ray meets every challenge with a resigned determination that borders on fatalism, an attitude that has served him well for decades. But the sons his work put through university don’t want to
You won’t have to look far for fun this weekend, even if you have to spend it indoors. Sydney Comedy Festival is taking over stages, wine bars and hidden rooms across the city with some exceptionally entertaining shows, the team behind Kyiv Social are throwing a huge free laneway party, and if you’re happy to travel a little further afield, Robertson Potato Festival is popping up in a small town in the Southern Highlands. If you’re keen to keep it wholesome this weekend, we’d recommend starting your Saturday by joining the Walk for WAGEC which is taking place in Centennial Park, then spending the afternoon exploring the sunny streets of nearby Paddington. Looking for a spot for a fancy lunch? These are the best restaurants in the city right now. Keen to get out of town? These are the best winter getaways in NSW. Scroll on for our full list of everything you can get up to in Sydney this weekend.