
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.

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.

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!

TINA — A Tropical Love Story | Ben Graetz
TINA - A Tropical Love Story is a fun one-hour cabaret showcase of First Nations’ talent that spotlights the talents of Ben Graetz/Miss Ellaneous, and gives a platform for local and emerging artists; great frocks, charming stories, excellent lip sync and interpretation, and solid musical choices.

BATSHIT | Leah Shelton
BATSHIT is, well, batshit. It’s a theatrical fever dream, giving a little burlesque, a little verbatim, a little mixed media, and a lot of comedy.

Us and All of This | Liesel Zink, Lawrence English, & Performing Lines
Zink and English have achieved something incredibly special here - a true collaboration with highlights coming from both mediums present within the work, it was an honour to watch it in this iteration, with these performers, at this location. Installation art has the ability to change the world in which it exists, and nowhere have I found this to be more true than with Us and All of This.

The Dream Weaver: Guardians of Grace | Grace Lillian Lee
Each set of armour and shield represents one of Grace’s relatives, creating a physical family tree of woven sculptures. The individualised detail and numerous differences (both subtle and obvious) in each relative’s manifested representations indicates a considered and thoughtful approach to the work. The artworks seem to breathe the life story and memories of their namesakes, and while inspecting the work I could almost see the emotion poured into each stitch and weave.

Cirque Jingle | JACs Entertainment
There are a lot of great choices for a festive-themed show this season, including shows that have returned for many years. It’s great to see that JACs Entertainment has produced a show that complements those choices, offering an event that is suitable for the whole family.

Tracker | Australian Dance Theatre
Wiradjuri choreographer and Australian Dance Theatre Artistic Director, Daniel Riley, has brought together a talented team of creatives and artists to create a show that focuses on Daniel Riley’s exploration of the life of his Great-Great Uncle, Alec "Tracker" Riley.

In Your Dreams | Polytoxic
It is not often that I get the first line of my review handed to me during a performance. According to Polytoxic, my review should start with “five stars and checking [my] privilege”. We don’t do star ratings at Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane, but I’ll happily make an exception for Polytoxic’s new work, In Your Dreams. This show promises a line-up of glass-ceiling smashing, system dismantling, genderqueer, fiercely intersectional artists, and delivers spectacularly on this promise.

The Wynter of Our Disco Tent | Funny Mummies
The duo used real-life teenage diary entries to inspire a score of original 80’s pop tunes as lyrically witty as they were melodic. The musical numbers, and the show as a whole, teetered experterly on this line of self-aware cringe. Which, for an audience whose entry was more teens-at-an-80s-concert than stand-up goers, seemed like the perfect fit.

Club Culture Cabaret | Briefs Factory
At night, the Brisbane Powerhouse is a towering structure. When awash in a coloured glow, the industrial legacies of its brick exterior are exposed and amplified. Standing tall, it looms above the heads of those swallowed by its glass doors. Yet on Sunday night, with Fez Fa’anana (as Shivannah) sauntering amongst arriving audiences and flashing smiles over diamantéd shoulders, the building had never felt so warm.

BRED | Briefs Factory
As impressive as the physical elements were, some of the more powerful moments were the dialogue parts. Emily delivers a powerful spoken word poem that had everyone in the room listening and Luke Hubbard stole the show for me in a closing performance that delved into the ongoing racism in the Australian police force and Indigenous deaths in custody, something that resonated with me deeply.

Die Hard: The Movie, The Play | Act React
It was really great to be part of the live audience. I enjoyed the laughter (including watching some audience members almost in tears, as they were laughing so hard)… and it was wonderful to spend a whole hour in 1988 (a world away from the challenges of 2021.

Cirque Bon Bon | JACs Entertainment
Cirque Bon Bon does not hold back and offers a rich circus experience. It features a very talented crew of artists who perform the most iconic circus acts including acrobatic archery, aerials, juggling, hoop dance, unicycle, acrobatic skating, and roue cyr.

Demolition | Polytoxic
When arriving at my seat a wave of proud brown girl joy makes its way through my spirit as the demolition work site sets the scene for what is going to be one of the most memorable shows that I've witnessed. I was about to undergo a unravelling of identity and I was more than ready!

Demolition | Polytoxic
The importance of solidarity really stuck with me and I felt like I was being shown an inclusive version of sisterhood that I could really relate to. This was no highly sanitised mainstream girlboss sisterhood, but the kind of solidarity that can be difficult and gritty and requires you to show up for other people and do the work.

Demolition | Polytoxic
Polytoxic’s show Demolition is not only a staggering showcasing of Circus and Theatre, it is a moving and uplifting Call-To-Arms. The effortless shift of scenes drew my senses in and catapulted me from issue to issue that many women in this world face on a daily basis.

Theatresports Grand Championships | ImproMafia
I counted fourteen different scenes across the show, which I thought was an impressive number for an hour-long show, and served as a tantalising sampler of the wide, wild world of impro possibilities. Over those scenes, the performers each showcased their strong individual talents for improvisation, imagination, and characterisation – and their sheer joy at being on stage was palpable. There was a great sense of chemistry between all of the performers, which allowed them to skillfully, smoothly riff off each other through even the most surprising changes in a scene.

"Some people have likened impro to a drug because it is so addictive." Wade Robinson riffs on magic of impro and the upcoming Theatresport Grand Championships.
Sylvia spoke with show director Wade Robinson to find out more about impro and Theatresports. He also dishes on the upcoming Theatresports Grand Championships where the best improvisors from Brisbane and beyond will battle it out in the upcoming in a side-splitting showdown of quick wits, fast thinking and comedy clout.