Western Sydney in the 22nd century is the setting for an ambitious audio-visual concert being performed at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres in June.
When the Tide Comes In tells the story of Sam, a young woman living in a future Western Sydney struggling under the impact of climate change, social division and restricted personal freedom.
She has grown up in a compound with her community of ‘Settlers’, where their actions and thoughts are overseen by a more technologically-advanced section of society. She has never known a mother, but mysterious visions of her ancestors and their ways of life dating back to pre-colonial times appear to her.
After the death of her brilliant but reclusive father, Sam is left with his mess of illustrations documenting her family’s history. She sets out on an unusual and dangerous mission to discover the truth of her past.
When the Tide Comes In was launched by the Western Sydney arts company CuriousWorks in March as a web series, with new chapters added monthly since.
The June concert can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story in its own right, or as the latest chapters in Sam’s mission, told through live music integrated with a character narration and a ‘graphic novel’ backdrop of illustrations, film and animation.
When the Tide Comes In is the first story in an epic ‘grand narrative’ known as Colony being produced by CuriousWorks over the next five years. The connected Colony stories follow 15 generations of one family from pre-colonial times to Sam’s era.
Creator S.Shakthidharan described it as being like“a Marvel universe set in Western Sydney but with ordinary heroes instead of super heroes”.
The stories explore themes of Western Sydney as a microcosm of the global mass migration that defines the past century, our lost connections with the earth’s natural cycles, the value of traditional wisdom in contemporary society and the impact of cultural and economic segregation in our city.
Visit the Colony web page for more details or to catch up with the earlier chapters in When the Tide Comes In.
The When the Tide Comes In concert is performed at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, 8pm Wednesday 22 June. Tickets $15