Zoology
Fri
27
Fri 27 Feb 7:30 PM
Hackett Hall, WA Museum Boola Bardip
Wheelchair
General Admission
75 Mins
When artist Talya Rubin was a child, and adults would ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would tell them: “a ballerina and a gorilla”. Now that she is all grown up—in a time of systems collapse—she is making Zoology to finally live up to her childhood dream of gracefulness and wildness.
Zoology is a subverted performance lecture and dance work about wildness and extinction as experienced by one woman and two children. It aims to provoke a deep, visceral re-connection with our wild natures and to invite audiences to sit in the uncomfortable and unresolved spaces of the current extinction crisis.
The work is inspired by found slides taken at the Bronx Zoo in the 1980s, as well as Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to transport a panda to America on her first diplomatic trip to visit Ronald Reagan in 1981. It weaves childhood stories about New York City, tangential associations with The Wizard of Oz, and the history of menageries.
One woman, two children, and a white space that fractures into a rainbow of colours. Zoology is a lecture and dance performance that offers a poetic, absurdist, and unsettling reflection on wildness, extinction, and our place in the natural world.
Rating: MA 15+
Show Time: 7:30 p.m.
Running Time: 75 minutes with no interval
Content Warnings: Please note that this content contains sudden loud sounds and
potentially disturbing content about extinction and loss.
Too Close to the Sun is an interdisciplinary performance company run by writer-performer Talya Rubin and director Nick James. Their work unfolds like living poems—blurring the boundaries between lecture, ritual, and dream — and invites audiences into spaces of intensity and reflection. Working from Western Australia, they collaborate with artists across the country and abroad to craft works that are both precise in form and open to mystery.
Their most recent production, At the End of the Land, premiered at PICA in 2023, establishing the company as a distinctive voice in Western Australia. With Zoology, they continue to expand the boundaries of contemporary performance, drawing audiences into immersive worlds where the poetic meets the political, and the personal extends into the mythic.
Based in Boorloo (Perth), Too Close to the Sun’s work has been presented nationally and internationally and developed through cultural partnerships including PICA, Perth; Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne; Arts House, Melbourne; Performance Space, Sydney; Vitalstatistix, Adelaide; Brisbane Festival; Brisbane Powerhouse; and Metro Arts, Brisbane. Their practice is grounded in curiosity, collaboration, and a commitment to creating work that invites emotion, wonder, deep internal reflection, and reconnection with the living world.
Credits:
Talya Rubin – Writer / Performer / Co-devisor/Visual Concept
Nick James – Director / Co-devisor
Laura Heffernan – Costume & Set Designer
Giorgos Poulos – Sound Designer
Katie Sfetkidis – Lighting Designer
Natalie Allen – Movement Consultant
Samuel James – Slide & Projection Design
Tiyan Baker – Video Maker
Erin Coates – Props Maker
Alison Halit – Executive Producer
Jodi Donovan – Associate Producer
Will Gammel – Production Manager
Zoology is a subverted performance lecture and dance work about wildness and extinction as experienced by one woman and two children. It aims to provoke a deep, visceral re-connection with our wild natures and to invite audiences to sit in the uncomfortable and unresolved spaces of the current extinction crisis.
The work is inspired by found slides taken at the Bronx Zoo in the 1980s, as well as Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to transport a panda to America on her first diplomatic trip to visit Ronald Reagan in 1981. It weaves childhood stories about New York City, tangential associations with The Wizard of Oz, and the history of menageries.
One woman, two children, and a white space that fractures into a rainbow of colours. Zoology is a lecture and dance performance that offers a poetic, absurdist, and unsettling reflection on wildness, extinction, and our place in the natural world.
Rating: MA 15+
Show Time: 7:30 p.m.
Running Time: 75 minutes with no interval
Content Warnings: Please note that this content contains sudden loud sounds and
potentially disturbing content about extinction and loss.
Too Close to the Sun is an interdisciplinary performance company run by writer-performer Talya Rubin and director Nick James. Their work unfolds like living poems—blurring the boundaries between lecture, ritual, and dream — and invites audiences into spaces of intensity and reflection. Working from Western Australia, they collaborate with artists across the country and abroad to craft works that are both precise in form and open to mystery.
Their most recent production, At the End of the Land, premiered at PICA in 2023, establishing the company as a distinctive voice in Western Australia. With Zoology, they continue to expand the boundaries of contemporary performance, drawing audiences into immersive worlds where the poetic meets the political, and the personal extends into the mythic.
Based in Boorloo (Perth), Too Close to the Sun’s work has been presented nationally and internationally and developed through cultural partnerships including PICA, Perth; Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne; Arts House, Melbourne; Performance Space, Sydney; Vitalstatistix, Adelaide; Brisbane Festival; Brisbane Powerhouse; and Metro Arts, Brisbane. Their practice is grounded in curiosity, collaboration, and a commitment to creating work that invites emotion, wonder, deep internal reflection, and reconnection with the living world.
Credits:
Talya Rubin – Writer / Performer / Co-devisor/Visual Concept
Nick James – Director / Co-devisor
Laura Heffernan – Costume & Set Designer
Giorgos Poulos – Sound Designer
Katie Sfetkidis – Lighting Designer
Natalie Allen – Movement Consultant
Samuel James – Slide & Projection Design
Tiyan Baker – Video Maker
Erin Coates – Props Maker
Alison Halit – Executive Producer
Jodi Donovan – Associate Producer
Will Gammel – Production Manager