No One Gets Out Of Here Alive | The Farm
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.
Shel We | Tupua Tigafua & Brisbane Festival
But it is those movements of activity and communal dance that are the absolute highpoints of the piece. It is an absolute delight to see those moments when the majority of the cast move together in a powerful, contemporary response to the music of Vivaldi and other classical composers. The extended ‘curtain call’ reprise of the moments of tumbling, fast, and frenzied dance is a very special way to remind us of the skill of the performers, leaving the audience wanting more.
Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking | Witi Ihimaera & Brisbane Festival
The dynamic on-stage personas of McDowell and her alter ego Dekkers-Reihana are beyond praiseworthy. Each gifted actor presented a flawless interpretation of their respective roles, convincing in every way, their interplay engaging to witness. In particular, their direct eye contact at all times created an intimacy that irrevocably drew the audience into their ‘world’. We were no longer spectators, bystanders but became irrevocably entwined with the unflinching story unfolding on stage.
Mama Does Derby | Clare Watson & Virginia Gay
From a performance perspective, Anna Lindner and Elvy-Lee Quici are absolute standouts as Maxine and Billie respectively, bringing a heightened (but believable) mother/daughter dynamic. It’s a very real “cigarette mum and her awkward artsy daughter” relationship, endearing you to both parties immediately and making the ensuing character developments ones you actually care about the outcome of.
Koreaboo | La Boite Theatre
Jeong expertly balanced Soon Hee's guarded defensiveness with repressed creative energy, while Davidson grounded Hannah's desperate attempts for an identity in palpable longing to spend time with her umma. Their dynamic transformed what could have been straightforward melodrama into a nuanced, deeply human portrait of cross-cultural reconnection, showing the raw, awkward distance between two people who barely know each other.
Strong is the New Pretty | Brisbane Festival, Sydney Theatre Company & Trish Wadley Productions
I’ll be honest, as the curtain closed I was fighting back a quiet wave of emotion. Not from sadness, but a massive rush of adrenaline, pride and raw energy. The emotional core of ‘Strong Is The New Pretty’ hit me right in the chest, driven by passion, vulnerability, strength, and team spirit.
The Choir of Man | Andrew Kay & Nic Doodson
The Choir of Man is a joyful, upbeat, musical celebration of mateship, community, friendship and pubs. Impressive harmonies, fabulous tap dancing, live music, and excellent audience engagement all make for a fun night out. Go with your mates or—in the best tradition of British pubs—just turn up on your own and leave having made a few new friends.
Not all venues are created equal
Come with me as I explore the accessibility of the venues that I have attended during the Brisbane Festival.
Unveiling Shadows | Joshua Taliani
Taliani expertly leads the audience on a journey through krump, bounce, and other hip-hop or street styles; vogue femme and hands performance; and the intersection of these styles with his contemporary dance background as well as his First Nations cultural practises. I use expertly here in the senses that he is (1) a phenomenal technician of all these styles, (2) an exceedingly evocative storyteller, and (3) the master of the world this work takes place in
The Telephone - The Lord Mayor’s City Hall Concert | Gian Carlo Menotti
I wasn’t sure what to expect from a one hour long, free opera sung in English, but after seeing The Telephone, I can say it was a delight. Cleverly presented and beautiful. The Telephone entertained and amazed the audience in a packed-out venue, ultimately providing an accessible entry point to opera for a modern audience.
Comedy on Cue | Blah Blah Blah Improv
With an emphasis on fun, inclusity, interactivity and a whole lot of silly, Comedy on Cue made for a great night out and a great end to the 2025 Undercover Artist Festival that the audience thoroughly enjoyed and felt part of. If you’re in need of some good belly laughs, a bit of escapism, a whole lot of ridiculous and even a bit catharsis, make sure to check out Blah Blah Blah Improv’s next show when it hits town.
Chatter | Spencer Novich
Great art happens when the artist is willing and able to externalise the most true and human parts of themselves on stage for an audience. Chatter is absurd, funny, confronting, and feels deeply real and undeniably honest. It is a compelling rollercoaster of an hour that loops through the silly and sad with a deft artistic hand and slick sound and lighting design. I only wish that I had been able to review this show at the start of its season, so I could have told everyone I know that they simply had to see it.
White Noise | Touch Compass
White Noise is a piece of performance art that communicates aspects of lived experience as a mother with disability, and encourages us all to ‘consider our place in the conversation.’ Dance and circus are at the centre of a show that is an all-encompassing artistic event that incorporates voice, animation, art, microphone manipulation, and an excellent soundscape.
The Natural Horse | Salad Days Collective
The Natural Horse is a deeply strange play, in more ways than one. A dark comedy about an ex-Soviet family and their struggles with the American dream, it's a work with a lot of lofty concepts and low-brow comedy, much of which is achieved with a scrappy heart that I appreciated.
Daydreamer | The Travelling Rose Theatre
Director / scriptwriter, India Rose has assembled a stellar cast to deliver her powerful autobiographical unflinching script that addresses what it means to live with this unseen disability. All in a mere sixty minutes.
Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett | Sheridan Harbridge & Sarah Goodes
Harbridge doesn’t so much play Chrissy as resurrect her. For two hours, the audience is made to feel the dangerous voltage between sex and fear, mockery and obedience, survival and self-destruction. Amplified is cabaret at its most alive: irreverent, haunting, and fiercely electric. Like Chrissy Amphlett herself, it demands we ask what rock really is—before it spits in our face and leaves us begging for more.
Wired Differently | Screech Arts & Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre
As we have come to expect from Screech Arts, Wired Differently is honest, direct, clever, entertaining, funny, authentic and courageous. Thanks to the support, talents and creativity of Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre, Wired Differently is an inspiring and ultimately moving celebration of what it means to be alive.
Elements of Freestyle | ISH Dance Collective
Elements of Freestyle is the definition of defying gravity— a thrilling collision of dance, extreme sports, and classical music. Imagine raw power meeting refined artistry in a high-octane performance that shatters genre boundaries and challenges every expectation. From start to explosive finale, it held the audience spellbound. You can’t afford to look away. Simply put: Wow!
6 Degrees | Chimera Arts
Chimera Arts has created a bold new work that explores the ways in which our lives are often closely inter-connected, and the potential of that social network. The use of ‘100 metres of chunky yarn’ is a clever device to reinforce messages about connection, and about the unravelling of power, represented through the excellent set design, and in the ways in which the artists gradually tear down the barriers and emerge from underneath the pieces.
Icons Alive! | Access Arts and The Undercover Artist Festival
Icons Alive! is bold, demonstrative, expressive, warm, welcoming, emotional and downright brilliant. This multitalented and gifted cast of performers with disability excelled on every level in pushing boundaries, pushing buttons, but above all, pushing for change. Kudos to MC Karen Lee Roberts – her outrageously gorgeous costumes plus her ebullient onstage persona kept the adrenaline rush at full throttle.