Journeys of the Happy Buddha

Bookings: unima2008 | Bocs Ticketing | BOCS: (08) 9484 1133
Tickets available on the door, unless sold out prior to the event


Such mistakes have been unavoidable ever since we ate from the tree of knowledge. But paradise is locked... We have to make the journey around the world and see if it is perhaps open again somewhere in the rear.

-Heinrich von Kleist

Commencing in the secluded gardens of Government House with a prologue derived from Heinrich von Kleist’s famous essay On the Marionette Theatre, spectators are invited to make their own ‘journey around the world’ to explore the most burning questions of our time.

What separates us from one another? What brings us together? What drives us as human beings?

Journeys of the Happy Buddha explores these eternal conundrums, which move us in life.

While exiled during World War II, Bertolt Brecht was compelled to write an opera about the human urge for happiness. Fragments of his unfinished work The Journeys of the God of Happiness form the basis of this new production.

Follow the Happy Buddha to the balcony of the Perth Concert Hall in this promenade production directed by Ralf Rauker and presented by contemporary performance students, School of Communications and Arts and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Can we find deeper love for life? Perhaps the Happy Buddha is the only ‘super hero’ that can save our hearts.

“This project will open new doors to creative synergies and the expression ‘hybrid performance’ will gain fresh meaning for all performing arts audiences.”

Ralf Rauker, Director | Edith Cowan University, Australia

Please note: This performance contains puppet nudity and violence

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