Choreographer serves reimagined ballet with ‘Petrushka (Game, Set, Match)’

From the creator behind the award-winning BANG! BANG! (The Blue Room Theatre, 2019), comes a reimagined version of Sergei Diaghilev’s infamous ballet Petrushka.

Choreographed by star on the rise Scott Elstermann this fresh and innovative piece, Petrushka (Game, Set, Match) is part ballet, part contemporary dance and part tennis.

Petrushka is a ballet and orchestral concert work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1911 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company. Petrushka is a story of a Russian traditional puppet, Petrushka, who is made of straw and with a bag of sawdust as his body, but who comes to life and develops emotions.

Entering the Studio Underground the audience steps into the sporting arena of Court 1 where two tennis players compete in the match of their lives. Competition turns sinister, as deception and sabotage wreak havoc. The umpire seems in on the game- but who is pulling the strings behind the scenes? And why?

As the match unfolds, we witness the Magician’s manipulation, controlling the points, players and umpire calls. The “match-making” love triangle in Sergei Diaghilev’s original version is reimagined to a triangle of “match-fixing”; of playing for “love/zero” in tennis, instead of love in life.

Bringing together the best of WA’s dancers Laura Boynes, Bernadette Lewis, David Mack, Tyrone Robinson plus six graduate dancers from WA Academy of Performing Arts LINK program who support the cast as a corps de ballet of ball kids.

Scott Elstermann is a recipient of the prestigious Pina Bausch Fellowship for Dance and Choreography. He is the first Australian and youngest-ever artist to receive this honour. In 2020, Scott was the 7NEWS WA Young Achiever of the Year (Arts & Culture) and won ‘Best Performer (Male)’ and ‘Best New Work’ at the Performing Arts Awards for BANG! BANG!.

Scott received the Palisade Award for Most Outstanding Graduate of the Bachelor of Arts (Dance) course at WAAPA. He has performed for the Merce Cunningham Trust, Lucy Guerin Inc., Shona Erskine and Brooke Leeder & Dancers as well as choreographed various works for the WA Youth Orchestra, LINK Dance Company and WAAPA.

Petrushka (Game, Set, Match) will be at the State Theatre Centre’s Studio Underground from April 28 – May 1. For tickets and more info, head to ptt.wa.gov.au

Image: Edify Media

You can support our work by subscribing to our Patreon
or contributing to our GoFundMe campaign.