OF THE CAUSES OF WONDERFUL THINGS

“This piece is so emotive and so intriguing that the longer it goes on, the longer it could be watched… It is rare and affirming to see theatre so utterly human.”

– Australian Stage, Brisbane

CONTACT / Talya Rubin / +61 416 718 020 / +1 438 875 4427 / tooclosetothesun.theatre@gmail.com / TOOCLOSETOTHESUN.TUMBLR.COM

When Esther Drury’s five nieces and nephews mysteriously disappear, she begins a search to find them that leads her underground, literally. This solo work plays with scale and perspective as it takes the audience to worlds above and below and travels to a Town Hall that is a surreal portal to the dead. The work is an installation theatre piece for a limited audience of 50.

Immersed in a noir and atmospheric world, Of The Causes of Wonderful Things weaves dark comedy with tones of Faulkner and the Southern Gothic. This otherworldly, deeply human, visionary piece examines the redemptive power of confronting darkness.

WRITER/DEVISER/PERFORMER: TALYA RUBIN

CO-DEVISER/DIRECTOR: NICK JAMES

SOUND DESIGN: HAYLEY FORWARD

LIGHTING DESIGN: RICHARD VABRE

VISUAL DESIGN AND CONCEPT: TALYA RUBIN

This project was previously

supported by Arts House

and the City of Melbourne

The development of this

project was previously

supported by the Austral ian

Government through the

Austral ia Council, i ts arts

funding and advisory body.

Talya Rubin (Devisor/Writer/Performer) is

a Montreal born, Australian made writer,

performer and creator of new work for live

performance. She has toured with her original

solo works, Ariadne’s Thread, The Girl With No

Hands and Of The Causes of Wonderful Things

to festivals in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne,

Sydney, Montreal, Prague and Toronto. Her

most recent work was seen in development

at Under The Radar (Brisbane Festival) and

LiveWorks (Performance Space). In its finished

form it was presented at Arts House (Meat

Market, Melbourne) and Brisbane Powerhouse

(Visy Theatre). As a poet, Talya won the

National Canadian Bronwen Wallace award for

poetry for the most promising writer under the

age of 35. Most recently, she was short listed for

the Montreal International Poetry Prize.

Nick James (Co-devisor/Director) is a writer

and film director born in Chile from Australian

parents. His short films have been screened

at festivals in Poland, the Netherlands,

Germany,Romania, San Francisco, Chile,

Argentina, Montreal, Adelaide and Melbourne.

He was awarded two travel grants one from

the Australian Film Commission and one

from Film Victoria to represent his film at the

Stuggart Film Winter Festival for Expanded

Media and the Castro Theatre as part of the

San Francisco International Gay and Lesbian

Film Festival. Nick directed and co-devised Of

The Causes of Wonderful Things.

Hayley Forward (Sound Designer) is a sound

engineer, sound designer and artist. She is

one half of a collaboration with Jess Olivieri

& the Parachutes for Ladies, creating works

from humming choirs, to self-help audio

guides, large-scale pseudo musicals, and video

installations. The most recent work with the

PFL, “I thought a musical was being made”

was commissioned by and appeared at the

2010 Next Wave festival. Her sound design in

theatre earned a Greenroom award nomination

for Ignite production’s Jet of Blood (2006).

Other theatre productions include: The Bee

(MoFuCoSu) 2007, 3 Short Absurd Works

(Ignite) 2008, A View of Concrete (MPowerYouth

productions) 2008, Arrivals and Departures

(St Martins Youth Theatre) Signal, 2009 and

Of the Causes of Wonderful Things (Too Close

to The Sun), 2010/11.BIOS

Too Close to the Sun is an interdisciplinary solo performance-making company

creating and touring work in both Australia and Canada. We are committed to

making revelatory, inventive work about what is alive, hidden and urgent.

The key founding artists, Talya Rubin and Nick James are a husband and wife

team interested in pursuing depth, surprise and wonder in performance work.

REVIEWS/CRITICAL PRAISE

“This is intensely moving theatre, and for all the bleakness, beautiful. Rubin makes the unbearable seem bearable. Horror bows to wonder. I left feeling stricken but radiant.” – The Age

“Here was a performer living each character: dedicated to not pretend but to harrowingly reveal to an audience, just what it would be like to disappear and to be scared and to be miserable. I can go on about the performance, but I’ll just leave it as a plot; that once it was laid out and once we were defeated by the history of this world, then nothing could stop this from being a master class in acting.” - Australian Stage, Melbourne

“Almost always awe-inspiring, Of the Causes of Wonderful Things is a theatre piece with a premise and execution like no other.” - Concrete Playground

“Reminds me very much of a David Lynch film...The usher recommended you sit as close as possible to really get the full experience, and he wasn’t kidding. Besides puppetry and projectors, there are miniature sets and poor innocent punters being interrogated by one of the many characters Rubin masterfully transforms into.”

- The AU Review

“Installation performance that impacted on a richly textured, deeply poetic level... a pure performer’s piece.” - Real Time 100

“The staging, set and props added to the sense of the

disconcerting through brilliant use of scale. At times

the stage shrunk to the size of a claustrophobically

small box, lit with pale, down shining light and

an earthen floor, barely enough room for Esther’s

disembodied head and the 5-inch body of her ghostly

niece. At other times the stark stage lights projected

a towering wraith upon the back of the stage and

up into the rafters, ominously shadowing Rubin,

threatening to consume her”

- XS Entertainment

ARTIST/COMPANY

Talya Rubin/Too Close to the Sun

PRODUCTION TITLE

Of The Causes of Wonderful Things

GENRE/FORM

Interdiscipl inary Performance/Theatre

Co-devisor/director: Nick James

Sound design: Hayley Forward

Lighting design: Richard Vabre

Dramaturgy: Campion Decent

Visual concept: Talya Rubin

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

An intricate and unsettl ing solo work about

what happens when 5 children disappear in a

small town in the American South. Immersed

in a noir and atmospheric world, this l imited

audience work explores the redemptive power

of confronting darkness.

PREVIOUS SEASONS

11- 13 August, 2011

Arts House, Meat Market

1-4 May, 2013

Brisbane Powerhouse, Visy Theatre

DEVELOPMENT SEASONS

September 2010, Under The Radar,

Brisbane Festival

November 2011 LiveWorks,

Performance Space

RESIDENCIES

Off The Shelf (FraserStudios), The Rex

Cramphorn Studio (The University of Sydney),

Bil l & George, Serial Space

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

Duration: 65 minutes

Venue: Black box space or warehouse space

with heritage wall. Needs a f loor plan with

f lexible seating or room for the audience to be

placed on stage with the performance set up.

Space: 6m x 6m playing space. Audience is

3 rows of 15 on cushions, chairs on f loor and

chairs with low rostra.

Capacity: 40-50

Personnel:

2 (Performer, Director/Stage Manager)

Bump-in: 2 days

PRODUCER

Harley Stumm, Intimate Spectacle

+61 411 330 654

www.tooclosetothesun.tumblr.com

SUMMARY

Erin MilneBureau of Works

+61 412 853 220www.bureauofworks.com.au

Erin Milne, Bureau of Works +61 412 853 220 erin@bureauofworks.com.au

TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN

tooclosetothesun.tumblr.com

“Talya’s work is compelling and intelligent, intimate and atmospheric – both in writing, performance, staging and direction. She has made astute choices with her collaborators to create this stunning work.”

– Jude Gun, Associate Producer, Adelaide Festival