First announcement for Dark Mofo 2023 — A Divine Comedy

Dark Mofo organisers are excited to reveal the first program announcement for Hobart’s winter festival—the tenth and final festival to be helmed by Leigh Carmichael, as he makes space for a new Artistic Director to take the reins in 2024.

Dark Mofo 2023 will feature the Australian exclusive performance of A Divine Comedy by celebrated Austrian choreographer and performance artist Florentina Holzinger, a superstar of contemporary European dance whose ruthless theatre addresses gender relations and the representation of women’s bodies in art and media.

“We are thrilled to present Florentina Holzinger’s A Divine Comedy for Dark Mofo 2023. She is a super talented artist who is brazenly contemporary and culturally relevant,” Creative Director Leigh Carmichael said.

“This is the most incredibly wild theatre performance that we have presented in the history of Dark Mofo. Its scale is unprecedented and bold, a fitting highlight for our tenth festival. We can safely say the audience will be anything but bored.”

Inspired by Dante’s The Divine Comedy, which depicted hell, purgatory and paradise, Holzinger’s A Divine Comedy brings together a cast of performers of all ages and different physical, musical and athletic disciplines to bundle forces in an exploration of the human negotiation of life and death.

With provocative effects including nude performers, bodily substances, slasher movie references, and slapstick, Holzinger’s ironic sensibility skips through a dizzying array of references to the history of dance and art.

This operatic celebration of life and death digests humanity's struggles with its short lifespan, the dualistic relationship of Thanatos and Eros and the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and wisdom. 

Dark mofo

presents A Divine Comedy

16–18 June 2023 - nipaluna/Hobart

A ticket ballot is now open for registrations.

Dark Mofo runs from 8–22 June 2023. www.darkmofo.net.au

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