No One Gets Out Of Here Alive | The Farm
Images: Billy Wilson Coffey
No One Gets Out of Here Alive has had its world premiere at the Thomas Dixon Centre for Brisbane Festival. This new work by Gold Coast contemporary dance company The Farm explores the one true universal experience: death. It’s a big topic, but this piece manages to tackle it with honesty, creativity, and care.
The show begins with a formal and stiff funeral, with the dancers acting out the awkward and familiar dynamics often present at such events. It intentionally feels very performative, and the scene steadily evolves to more visceral expressions of grief, culminating in dirt being flung out of the casket and onto the previously sterile stage. I love when scent is incorporated into a show and the musty, earthy smell of the dirt could be experienced from more than halfway back. The choreography of rolling, dancing, and sliding in the dirt is completely captivating and beautiful, and one of my favourite visuals from the performance.
There was a moment when the show lost me - when it dove so completely into grief that I was worried that it was going to do what I’ve seen some contemporary dance shows do in the past, that is to pull their audience into the strongest emotion possible and leave them there without hope of change. No One Gets Out of Here Alive instead manages to pull the audience back out of an emotional pit into something engaging and delightfully human.
Images: Billy Wilson Coffey
I will do my best to not go into spoiler territory, but I will say the show moves forward with moments of playfulness, whole-hearted tenderness, and existential humour. Ultimately, I found the show to be very touching, and honest about grief while also being honest and appreciative of the everyday miracles of connection, love, and the bliss of enjoying the moment and each other. We all live a doomed life - but we also get to live, and that is where the magic happens.
The lighting design by Chloe Ogilvie subtly shifts throughout the piece. As a work with little in the way of set, the lighting sets the mood without distracting in any way from the movement on stage. This is complemented by the choreography by the dancers, which feels personal to each performer, looking organic while obviously being considered and highly emotional.
I was really impressed by the level of care of the audience that is crafted into the show. Following the performance, audience members are invited to stay seated in the theatre if they do not yet feel ready to leave, to contemplate the final set piece accompanied by gentle sound. For those who are ready to leave, members of The Farm are in the foyer ready to chat with anyone who wants or needs to. Almost always a piece of theatre finishes at the final bow without artists experiencing anything reflected back to them, and this approach by The Farm demonstrates a real dedication to care of the audience and continued vulnerability and openness post show.
No One Gets Out of Here Alive is work by artists with their audience firmly in mind - a touching and varied exploration of dying and living.
No One Gets Out of Here Alive plays 9-12 September at the Thomas Dixon Centre, West End as part of the 2026 Brisbane Festival.
Images: Billy Wilson Coffey
