Too Close to the Sun

Is an interdisciplinary theatre company making work at the cross-section of performance, visual arts, video, and sound. Founded in 2009, by Talya Rubin and Nick James. The company is currently based on Wadjuk Noongar boodja in Boorloo (Perth). We are interested in the edges, the unknown, and the uncanny, and often follow a series of seemingly unrelated threads in our work with depth and dark humour, weaving performances into a non-linear totality. We pursue transformative and unexpected experience for audiences. 

Using multi-layered storytelling, incorporating objects, projection, live film, and installation to create worlds that are inescapable, unsettling and dream-like, our work is characterised by transformation and immersion and seeks to question the nature of performance and examine darkness with unnerving humour and intensity.

In Australia, our work has toured to Arts House, Performance Space, PICA (Perth Institute of Contemporary Art), Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane Festival, Metro Arts, and Vitalstatistix. We have developed work in residencies including, CultureLAB Arts House, KISSClub PICA/pvi collective, Live Dreams Performance Space, Adhocracy, Bundanon, The Contemporary Puppetry Residency Terrapin Theatre, Hill End, Fremantle Arts Centre, Metro Arts, Sydney University, The National Arts Centre (Canada) and The Banff Centre (Canada).

Talya Rubin (Co-devisor/Writer/Performer/Visual Concept and Design) is a Boorloo (Perth) based performance maker and poet and one half of the theatre company, Too Close to the Sun. Originally from Montreal, Canada, she has worked as a professional actor in film, television, voice, and radio since the age of 10 and performed opposite actors such as James Woods, Alan Arkin, Loretta Switt, and Elliot Gould. She has toured and performed original solo performance works, Of the Causes of Wonderful Things, The Bluebird Mechanicals and At the End of the Land to critical acclaim across Australia, including at PICA, Performance Space, Arts House, Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse, Metro Arts, and Vitalstatistix. Her performance work was chosen to be part of the Collaborations Project at The National Arts Centre (Canada) and her work has been developed through awarded residencies at Arts House CultureLAB, Fremantle Arts Centre, KISS Club/ pvi collective/PICA, Spare Parts, Hill End and the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, The Contemporary Australian Puppetry Residency at Terrapin Theatre, Adhocracy Lab Vitalstatistix, HotHouse Theatre, Live Dreams at Performance Space, The Banff Centre, and Bundanon. As a writer, Talya’s work won the national Canadian Bronwen Wallace Award for the most promising poet under the age of 35 and has been longlisted for the Montreal International Poetry Prize and the CBC Poetry Award. Her work has been shortlisted for the Winston Collins Descant Prize for best Canadian poem, and the Melbourne Poets Union International Poetry Competition. Her first book of poetry, Leaving the Island was published by Vehicule Press (Montreal) in 2015, and her second collection, Iceland is Melting and So Are You, was published by Book*hug Press (Toronto) in October 2021 and launched online with musician Rufus Wainwright. She has taught drama and directed opera and stage productions at NIDA, AFTRS, Sydney University, McGill University and The Darlinghurst Theatre. She worked at Performance Space, Sydney under the artistic directorship of Fiona Winning and Daniel Brine. Talya holds a BA in Theatre and Creative Writing from Bard College, New York, a DipEd in drama teaching from the University of Melbourne, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Most recently, Talya has worked giving directorial feedback for celebrated Greek theatre director and performer, Euripides Laskaridis, on his new work Lapis Lazuli that premiered at Onassis Stegi, Athens in April 2024.

Nick James (Co-devisor/Director) is a co-founder of Too Close to the Sun. A writer, musician, and film and theatre director born in Chile from Australian parents, Nick directed and co‐devised the company’s previous works Of the Causes of Wonderful Things, The Bluebird Mechanicals and At The End of the Land. He has participated in numerous curated residencies with Too Close to the Sun, including: The Banff Centre, The Rex Cramphorn Studio (Sydney University), Metro Arts, HotHouse Theatre and PWM Montreal. His first short film was screened at 20 Australian and International festivals and he has just completed two new short films. Nick is currently working on several short and feature film projects in development and production in 2024 and runs a production company, Clearwater Films.

KEY COLLABORATORS

Hayley Forward (Sound Design) is a sound artist and engineer, producing compositions, sound designs, performances, and sound installations for the visual and performing arts.  As an artist, Hayley has collaborated with Jess Olivieri and the Parachutes for Ladies whose exhibits include Framed Movements ACCA, Melbourne Festival 2014; Contemporary Australia: Women GOMA, 2012, Primavera 2011, MCA. Awards include the John Frieze prize (2013).  As a sound designer, Hayley creates atmospheric soundscapes and incorporates ideas into the weave of her own creative work. Recent credits include Tacita Dean’s, Event for a Stage at Carriageworks, Sydney Biennale 2014 and Too Close to the Sun’s Of the Causes of Wonderful Things and The Bluebird Mechanicals.

Sam James (Video Design) has been a projection designer for contemporary performance companies and independent dancers since 1995As a video artist he has been involved in over 200 performance works including Nun's Night Out (winner Best Dance Film, Australian Dance Awards 2006), The Piper (My Darling Patricia, Sydney Festival - winner Best Children’s Theatre Sydney Theatre Awards 2014), GUDIRR GUDIRR (Marrugeku 2014), and My Radio Heart (NORPA and Urban Theatre Project 2014). He held a large-scale exhibition at Artspace Sydney, curated by Blair French (Amygdala - Fear Conditioning 2010) and a multi-channel installation curated by Bec Dean (Nightshifters Performance Space, 2010). http://shimmerpixel.blogspot.com.au/

Richard Vabre (Lighting Design) has lit productions for MTC, STC, Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir Street, Victorian Opera, Windmill Theatre, Arena Theatre Company, NICA, The Darwin Festival, Stuck Pig’s Squealing, Chambermade, Rawcus, Red Stitch, Polyglot, Melbourne Worker’s Theatre, Aphids and many many productions at La Mama Awards: Richard has won 4 Green Room Awards including the Association’s John Truscott Prize for Excellence in Design (2004).  He has also been nominated for 7 other Green Room Awards.

Alison Halit (Producer) With extensive experience and networks Alison leads her own practice collaborating with artists, venues, festivals and companies connected to her curatorial interests within the realm of contemporary and experimental art. Artists (past and present) include Jackson Castiglione, Aphids, Rawcus, Daniel Tobias, Luke George, Joel Bray, Prue Lang, Leah Shelton, Tim Darbyshire, The Rabble, Angela Goh, Nicola Gunn, Ranters, Arena Theatre Company, Melanie Jane Wolf, Zoe Scoglio. She has produced over 60 acclaimed new creations and has toured works to 23 countries. Highlights include: Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne (now RISING) Festivals, Dark Mofo, Liveworks/Carriageworks, HOTA (Gold Coast), Malthouse Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, the Venice Biennale, National Gallery Singapore, théâtre Garonne (Toulouse), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Aarhus Festival, Spring Festival (Utrecht), Usine C (Montreal), The Chocolate Factory (New York), Concertgebouw (Brugge), Ming Contemporary Art Museum (Shanghai), Taipei Art Festival, Culturgest (Lisbon), BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen), Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna), FAB Festival (Bordeaux), Baltic Circle Theatre Festival (Helsinki), TBA Festival (Portland).