Moat Bar and Restaurant

Every performing artist has a dream role, every lover of language has a favourite author, characters coveted by actors, words jealously revered by writers. And then there are the plays and stories we just love, not for their status or grandeur but because for some reason they ring a bell inside us and connect with something far deeper than our career ambitions. They are part of what we call our “creative conversation”, the works that inspire, challenge and intrigue us.
An Artist’s Salon
Wednesday 1st March
Dinner and show from 7:30pm: $45
Show only from 8:30pm: $10
The Moat Bar & Restaurant
176 Lt Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Adrian Mulraney and Paul Canlan read Dylan Thomas while Huw Jones performs Welsh tunes on the harp.
It has been said that the most discernable characteristic of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ work was that it was unclassifiable. It was as one scholar said “poetry unlike any other”. Thomas fell in love with words as a child reading nursery rhymes and they became, in his own words “all of my life”. He died painfully young but left us with some of the 20th century’s most beautifully musical, playfully dexterous and startlingly evocative poems that explore the unity of all life, the continuing process of life and death and the wonders of the new life that links the generations. An hour of the glorious words of Dylan Thomas including personal letters and the stunning “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” read by two fabulous actors while one of our country’s most respected concert harpists plucks along.The great artist salons of early 20th century Europe were places of ideas, places where fiery conversations on the true meanings of art exploded in full voice fuelled by cheap wine accompanied by live music. What are we doing here? attempts to blend these
essential elements: the love of storytelling from some of our town’s most prominent performance artists, with music by a selection of Melbourne’s best musicians. To this we’ll add some quality wine from a selection of Victoria’s best wineries and toss them all together in the chic surrounds of The Moat Bar & Restaurant in the basement of the State Library.
Experience Melbourne artists doing the things they love for
people who love something just a little offbeat done with
panache, beginning March 1st, from 7:30pm.