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Now showing in Darlington

The brand new centre for performing arts is accessed down wide concrete stairs from Wilson Street, Darlington writes Peter Whitehead in the South Sydney Herald February 2007.

To the right, like the set for yet another Beckett play, pregnant with pause, are a series of seven ramps for pedestrian wheeled traffic. To the left, sheds of railway stuff and clear blue skies. From down here in the Redfern rail-yards, at the entrance to the CarriageWorks, you cannot see a city building, just trees beyond a close horizon of corrugated iron roofs.

Now, the place itself, according to its official word: “Developed by the NSW State Government through Arts NSW, CarriageWorks will be a contemporary performance space located in the 1880s Carriage Workshop. Carriages were built and repaired in this workshop for over a century and the building retains much of its original built fabric and industrial atmosphere. The fit-out is designed to read as a series of discrete modern elements within the historic shell.”

Across a brief band of sunshine to the deep shade of the old building brightly renovated – pushing through one of the tall glass doors into the airy foyer – it smells new.

Above, a rusty reminder of the coming of Steam, on stalwart beams, remain large mechanical wheels, stripped of viable connections but defiantly stressed with the dignity of labour. The original shed lights, refurbished, large pressed metal hoods glower proudly through the odd chip in lustrous aged enamel. Gawping upwards the columns and vaulted ceilings evoke sensations of a cathedral while underfoot we feel the floor of an abattoir redeemed by 21st century fine grinding.

This could be a venue for, perhaps, Popular Mechanics to take a residency. Preparation for the evening’s opening proceeds apace; hydraulic raising devices flex their modern orange parallelograms effortlessly up and down. Middle-aged men with fantastic facial hair, arts administrators maybe, are removing bubble wrap from tall round bar tables.

At 1500 hrs four-legged wasp critters skitter stilts across the foyer towards a trio of media shutterbugs.

This place won’t be poaching punters from proximate pubs with no glass of wine for less than $7.50 as they chalk the prices large on boards behind the elegantly bunkered bars. You can grab a Toohey’s New at the same price you get sandwiches: six bucks. Sushi: $9.50. There is more.

At 1520 hrs the sound surround system blurts: “Test! – One! – Two!” CarriageWorks director Sue Hunt is having a busy day. The expected teething problems – the worst of which, delayed delivery of permanent seating, necessitates apologies for the temporary replacements which sit uneasily in the great theatrical spaces of the complex – won’t frustrate Sue from making good her promise that “CarriageWorks will offer an exciting addition to the cultural life of Sydney and its artists, providing an environment that pulses with a unique spirit of creativity and innovation.”

This new venue is a magnificent boon for the community. But not if we don’t get down there and inhabit the place and welcome the artists who will come. Happening soon, to launch Performance Space – the first established arts company to call CarriageWorks home – three free Special Events. Sue Hunt says: “At CarriageWorks, the doors are open to all possibilities.” First-time patrons may want to take a compass and a snack and be prepared to have their eyes opened.

1. At a picnic with artists Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro at 2pm on Saturday 24 February there are dozens of oysters to be shucked and then used to make a new sculptural work – PRIMARY PRODUCERS

2. SINGING THE SPACE, Sunday, 6pm, 25 February – a melodic feast to usher in new ways of seeing and being.

3. Friday 2 March, 8.30pm, a sea of analogue dreams with DEMUX. Audio-visual systems are used, abused and tweaked to reveal the interplay between human and machine.

The first regular gig will be NEVER BEEN THIS FAR AWAY FROM HOME, a new solo show from choreographer/performer Martin del Amo, who promises a darkly comic and sometimes surreal journey into his fascination with the unknown. March 7-17, Wed-Sat, 8pm, $25/$15

Source: South Sydney Herald February 2007