Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta presents an exciting artistic collaboration with renowned UK based theatre makers, The Javaad Alipoor Company, in Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, as part of the 2024 Sydney Festival at the Sydney Opera House from 19th to 21st January 2024.
Co-written by Javaad Alipoor and Chris Thorpe, this ultramodern multi-media theatre piece is an investigation into the nature of investigation, with the unsolved murder of a pop icon at its centre. It’s the 1970s and Fereydoun Farrokhzad’s star is blazing bright – he’s a sex symbol and chart-topping pop singer – imagine an Iranian Tom Jones. A decade on and he’s living in political exile in Germany, though still performing to sold-out audiences in Europe. On 7 August 1992, he’s found brutally murdered. The neighbours said his dogs had been barking for two nights. Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World is a wild ride down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia and murder mystery podcasts, sorting through the tangle of information available online in a post-colonial world to reveal the limits of search engines in solving a decades old cold case. After its previews at Sydney Festival 2022, this riveting multimedia theatre experience returns this Summer. Audience will need to connect to Sydney Opera House wifi as part of the show. A post-performance Q&A featuring Javaad Alipoor (Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World) and Joanne Kee (Executive and Creative Producer of Riverside's National Theatre of Parramatta), hosted by Festival Director, Olivia Ansell, will take place on Saturday 20 January at 5pm.