Featuring the Ararat City Band, this double bill brings you two stories about love, music and war – and all the things that people leave behind. The show includes jazz and brass music from the 1920s – 1940s, and will feature the Ararat City Band.

Stardust tells the story of Col Brain, a professional trumpet /cornet player and bandmaster. Before Col died, he stored all of his life’s possessions into a wooden dresser and locked it up, never to be opened again.

So what was inside? Told through the eyes of his grandson [Joel Carnegie], herein lies the discovery of a time capsule of Australian musical life, in a heart-warming quest to uncover what Col wanted us to know about his life by the things he left behind.

The Mission tells the story of Allan McDonald: a “Fighting Gunditjmara” man from south-west Victoria, who was one of the State’s first Indigenous soldiers to enlist for war. Allan fought at some of WWI’s most famous campaigns, including Gallipoli and Beersheba – only to be denied a soldier’s settlement on his ultimate return to Australia, and forced from his land at the Lake Condah Mission. So what drives someone to fight for a country that doesn’t even recognise them as a citizen? How do you keep fighting in an unjust world and why?

Stardust runs for 45 minutes and The Mission runs for 55 minutes, with a 20 minute interval between shows.

Warnings: includes adult themes, occasional coarse language, smoke, scenes depicting war/ violence. ‘The Mission’ contains depictions of, and reference to, Indigenous people who have passed away. It also describes confronting content in relation to the massacre, dispossession and mistreatment of Indigenous peoples.