Concrete Playground

Next time you are having dinner at your partner’s parents place, I dare you to clear your throat and start a conversation about the merits of polygamy. Or perhaps you might inform your friends that their kids’ brains are rotten due to them soaking up social networking fodder like a dumbifying sponge. And then of course, there’s the mild subject of religious propaganda that is a sure-fire way to win friends and influence people. Genteel conversations like this and our tendency to avoid them like the plague is the impetus behind the brilliantly provocative Festival of Dangerous Ideas. 

Running over two days across multiple venues within the Sydney Opera House, the Festival will provide a platform for confronting, politically non-plussed voices to lay their opinions on the table and embark on intellectual warfare. The circus begins with Soapbox, a Public Speaking competition on the steps of the Opera House where members of the public are invited to deliver their controversial best under the watchful eye of judges David Marr and Annabel Crabb. 

Following this hearty debate, thought leaders from across the globe will present a variety of topics that will see the Opera House transformed into a riotous cacophony of human confabulation. This includes Christopher Hithens and Tony Jones analysing why Religion Poisons Everything and Jeff Sparrow explaining Why We Enjoy Killing.  Not known for being meek, Germaine Greer will present Freedom: the most dangerous idea of all in the grandiose surrounds of the Concert Hall, while Gary Foley will inform his audience that By 2075 The Aboriginal Genocide Will Be Complete. 

St James Ethics Centre and the Sydney Opera House jointly present the dynamic program of events too extensive to divulge in detail here. While the core activity of the Festival will be talks, forums and debates, the program also includes theatre performances by Team Loko and a comedy gala MC’d by Judith Lucy.


Image by Marc Johns