Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 07 July
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
‘Never grow up … always down.’ This excellent advice appears in George’s Marvellous Medicine, but it might have been Roald Dahl’s personal motto. Has any other children’s author known how to grow down as well as Dahl?
Dahl never condescended to his readers, but indulged their obsessions (lollies, fart jokes, nonsense neologisms) and fed their appetite for tales of the macabre and grotesque. From Revolting Rhymes to The Twits to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Matilda and many more, Dahl’s writing crackled with exuberance, imagination and irrepressible puerility. His books have been published in 59 languages with more than 200 million book sales worldwide.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s birth – so the Wheeler Centre will get revolting and ridiculous on stage with guests including Andy Griffiths, Jess McGuire, Kate McLennan, Tim Rogers, Anna Burke and more. They’ll wax nostalgic, perform extracts from Dahl’s vast body of work, delve into the recurring themes of his stories and discuss the life of this incomparable, sometimes controversial, author.
Join us for a celebration of snozzcumbers, swishfigglers and whoopsy-splunkers. (For health and safety reasons, all audience whizzpopping must take place outside the venue.) #Dahl100
Note: While this event is aimed at grown-ups, children are welcome!
(Event image: photograph by Michael Dyer, with illustrations by Quentin Blake.)
Featuring
Michael Williams
Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival. He has spent the past decade at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne as its ...
Andy Griffiths
Andy Griffiths started having adventures the moment he was born, and has been having them (and writing about them) ever since. You can find out more at www.andygriffiths.com.au
Kate McLennan
Kate McLennan is an award-winning writer, stand-up comedian and actress.
She is the co-writer of The Katering Show, where she plays an intolerable foodie alongside her food intolerant mate, Kate McCartney. The show launched on YouTube in 2015 and hit over 2 million views in its first week online. In 2016, a fresh new season of the hit series premiered on ABC iView. To date, the series is iView’s most viewed original series, has had over 9 million views on YouTube and the channel has over 100,000 subscribers. The pair have also written a short-form narrative comedy called Bleak, which originally launched on YouTube before it was made into a TV pilot for ABC’s Comedy Showroom in 2016.
In 2017, having conquered the world of satirical cooking shows, the Kates set their sights on the chirpy world of morning TV with their signature brand of social awkwardness and unprofessionalism in their full-length series titled Get Krack!n, which aired on the ABC that same year. The second and final season aired to much critical acclaim on the ABC in 2019.
Kate’s TV appearances include It’s A Date, Comedy Up Late, Winners & Losers, House Husbands, SlideShow, Offspring, Ricketts Lane and The Project. Most recently, Kate has had a guest appearance in Aunty Donna’s Glennridge Secondary College on YouTube. Her voice features in the animations 1001 Nights, Dogstar, The Flamin' Thongs, Wakkaville and Exchange Student Zero.
Kate has appeared in thirteen Melbourne International Comedy Festivals and performed stand-up comedy throughout Australia, the UK, US, Hong Kong and Singapore. Kate also toured India with MICF where she hosted the Roadshow and RAW Comedy competitions.
Both Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan won a 2018 AWGIE award for an episode of Get Krack!n and received an AWGIE for The Katering Show in 2015. The second season of The Katering Show was nominated for an AACTA award in 2016. The Katering Show won Best Short-Form Digital Series and tied for a Best of the Fest award at the New York Television Festival in 2015.
Tim Rogers
Tim Rogers is one of Australia’s most enduring and respected rock icons. Tim is the frontman singer and lyricist for the legendary Australian rock bands You Am I and The Temperance Union.
Tim’s songs pay homage to his love of women, his child and life in all its weird and wonderful incarnations.
Anna Burke
Anna Burke was the elected representative for the Victorian electoral division of Chisholm in the Australian Parliament from 1998 until 2016; she served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives during the 43rd Parliament from 2012 to 2103.
Prior to becoming Speaker, Anna served as Deputy Speaker in the both the 42nd and 43rd Parliaments as well as on a number of Parliamentary Committees including Climate Change, Environment and the Arts, Petitions, and Privileges.
Anna saw her role as the local representative as paramount and was well known throughout her local community and was successfully been re-elected six times.
Many Australians from across the country know Anna not only for her role in the Speaker’s Chair, but for her highly successful campaign to protect people from unwanted telemarketing calls. In 2005, she moved a Private Member’s Bill in Federal Parliament to create a national ‘Do Not Call’ list, which led to the former Government adopting her policy.
Anna was born in 1966 in Melbourne. She and her four siblings were raised in Ashwood, part of the electorate Anna represented.
Anna has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from Monash University and a Master of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Melbourne.
Prior to entering Federal Parliament, Anna worked as a national industrial officer for the Finance Sector Union, where she represented the workers in the banking, finance and insurance industries.
Jess McGuire
Jess McGuire is a writer and broadcaster based in central west NSW, and hosts breakfast radio each weekday morning on on ABC Western Plains. She previously appeared regularly as a reviewer and cultural commentator ...