By CHERIE DONNELLAN
ACCOMPLISHED composer and musician Ashley Davies is traversing the path of notable Australian explorers Burke and Wills – musically.
Davies contested the commonly-held belief that the duo’s expedition from Melbourne to Queensland’s Gulf of Carpentaria was a “failure”.
“I don’t see it that way,” Davies said.
“After reading about the expedition I was astonished at what they accomplished and totally inspired by what they did.
“The ideas came and I started to write a musical journey of the Burke and Wills expedition.”
Davies hoped audiences at the inaugural Geelong Fringe Festival next month would appreciate his perspective.
He believed the creativity of his new musical stage production, Burke and Wills: The Expedition, would “resonate” with and “inspire” listeners.
Davis promised that his only creative licence with the Burke and Wills story was in the music.
The narrative of Australia’s foremost Burke and Wills scholar, Dave Phoenix, provided the production’s lyrical account, Davies said.
He believed Phoenix’s narrative gave “history integrity” to the musical representation.
The Burke and Wills show was Davies’ second musical production characterising historical stories.
His live roadshow and CD based on Ned Kelly, with the production help of historian Ian Jones, earned critical acclaim across Australia in 2001.
Davies recalled members of a sardined audience at Apollo Bay Music Festival craning their necks to hear and watch him perform Kelly’s story.
Melbourne newspaper The Age voted Davies’ show the highlight of the festival.
Davies said notable Australian musicians to have joined his Burke and Wills project included Matt Walker, Reg Mombassa, Anita Quayle and Abbie Cardwell.
Geelong’s Courthouse ARTS will present the week long fringe festival, beginning 1 September, with the sponsorship of Deakin University.
Courthouse Arts said the festival would be an “engagement of young artists in a cross-media collaboration called the New Wilderness”.
Davies’ Burke and Wills: The Expedition will feature at the festival on 4 September.
