Season Preview: Your guide to the arts in 2021

In response to the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, Iain Grandage, the Artistic Director of the Perth Festival, has announced a program for 2021 performed entirely by West Australian artists and companies, with a strong Indigenous component.

“It’s a love song to Perth, it’s a love song to the artists of this place, and the stories of this place,” says Grandage.

Discussing the WA focus, Grandage tells Limelight: “We made this commitment because we are aware that in order to deliver work of international quality from inside the local context, we need to not only support the artists but give them the psychological time to build shows that they know to be of festival quality. So we are thrilled to be able to deliver this in a festival about the river and about this place.”

“We maintain a very strong connection to Whadjuk Noongar people, believing that the act of having performances is an act of ceremony, and acts of ceremony are by their very nature connected to the earth on which they are performed, and so from our point of view it’s a...