Digital ProgramAUTO-TUNE

UnWrapped brings the best independent creators to our stages and introduces audiences to groundbreaking original performances from across Australia. This season, we have 14 works exploring notions of identity, artistic ownership and the concepts of time through a multitude of disciplines. 

Run time
The duration of this event is 65 minutes, without interval
Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.

Age
Recommended for audiences 16+
Young people under the age of 15 must be accompanied at all times. 
 

Told through the eyes of a teenage Silverchair fan, AUTO-TUNE fuses theatre, music and video in a reflective work that examines the life-altering power of mistakes. Presented as an imaginary album, award-winning writer Mark Rogers and re:group performance collective have created a genre-defying production with this raucous work of ‘gig theatre’. An Opera House commissioned work, this season marks the Australian premiere of AUTO-TUNE and we’re ready for it to rock audiences.  

Brenna Hobson
Director of Programming
Sydney Opera House

Set in Wagga Wagga in the early 2000s, this raucous work of ‘gig theatre’ follows Michael, a teenage Silverchair fan who discovers he has a strange superpower. In the same way Auto-Tune perfects pitch, Michael finds he can time-travel, auto-tuning his life to rid it of dumb statements, awkward pauses and cringe jokes. But when this music-mad weirdo makes the biggest mistake of his life, will his Auto-Tune superpower save him?

Told through an audiovisual set of fresh indie songs and live video captions, this innovative and genre-defying performance from the dynamic re:group performance collective feels like discovering your new favourite band on the side-stage of a music festival.

In a pitch-perfect world where algorithms seem to be the answer, AUTO-TUNE is a sixty-five minute romp into a messy, sweaty universe that proves otherwise.

Writer / Performer / Musician: Mark Rogers
Director / Designer: Solomon Thomas
Creative Producer: Malcolm Whittaker
Dramaturg / Roadie: Steve Wilson-Alexander
Dramaturg / Marketing: Carly Young
Performer / Musician: Ashley Bundang
Performer / Musician: Liam ‘Snowy’ Halliwell
Lighting Designer: Kelsey Lee
Administration: Intimate Spectacle

 

Director, Programming: Brenna Hobson
(Former) Director, Programming: Fiona Winning
Associate Producer: Sacha Slip
Programming Coordinator: Athena Vlotis 
Marketing Manager: Adelaide Garner
Marketing Associate: Emily Edgar
Marketing Coordinator: Ashley Santos
Senior Communications Manager: Amity Harrold
Communications Specialist: Natasha Yuncken 
Communications Manager: Emily Cook
Senior Creative: Rohan Cain
Senior Creative - Content: Julia Kenny
Event Account Manager: Marie Sherrard
Production Manager: Monte Sheppard 
Food and Beverage Contract Manager: Nicole Switaj
SOHP Ticketing Specialist: Ryan Court
Head of Operations and Business Management: SOHP: Phillippa Martin Reiter
Business Analyst, SOHP: Alison Levingston
Corporate Counsel: Jordana Rowley

Mark Rogers (b. 1988) is a multi-award-winning playwright and theatre-maker living on Dharawal Land. In 2019 he won both the Griffin Award and Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Award. The play, Superheroes, was also shortlisted for Stückemarkt at Theatertreffen as a part of the Berlin Festspiele before premiering at Griffin Theatre Company in Sydney in 2020. His next play, Naked and Screaming, was staged for La Boite Theatre and won Best Production at the 2022 Matilda Awards. His work with the independent companies re:group performance collective and Applespiel has been staged at MONA:FOMA, Next Wave, PACT, Performance Space, Metro Arts, Belvoir, Brisbane Festival, Malthouse Theatre, La Mama, Merrigong Theatre Company, La Boite, Shopfront Arts Co-Op, Arts House and the Sydney Opera House. He holds a PHD from the University of Wollongong. 

re:group performance collective is Mark Rogers, Solomon Thomas, Malcolm Whittaker, Steve Wilson-Alexander and Carly Young. Inspired by the highs and lows of pop culture, we work as an ensemble to mash theatre-making and movie-making together to create “live cinema”. Our aim is to turn the typically comfortable and passive movie-going experience into something immersive, irreverent, sweaty and live. We are passionate about creating innovative work that questions the role and meaning of art in society, where the technology we use is core to the ideas in each work we make, which is typically ironic and sincere, and accessible and experimental, all in equal measure. Our current obsessions are loss, new technologies, difficult conversations, friendship, outdated media formats, labour relations and nostalgia. In 2024 we are presenting new work at Belvoir St. Theatre, Festival of Dangerous Ideas and Sydney Opera House.