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.
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.
First Nations Fashion: Walking in Two Worlds | Grace Lillian Lee
Ultimately, First Nations Fashion: Walking in Two Worlds succeeds in creating something that stirs emotions, restores power, speaks truth, celebrates culture while displaying First Nations fashion labels. It decolonises an industry that is ripe with racism, classism, and sexism, and replaces it with a sense of hope and harmony.
Weredingo | Karul Projects
“Are you coming as a human or as an animal tonight?” a well-dressed guy asked us as we descended into New Benner Theatre at Metro Arts on Saturday night. “Animal!” I said without giving myself the time to process the question.
Arc | Australasian Dance Collective
Arc was the first show of ADC since November 2019, and it was a remarkable post-pandemic lockdown comeback. It took place in South Bank, in the grassy area set against river and the cityscape as background. It is not often that you can enjoy the inviting feelings evoked by the Mercurian feet of dancers moving on soft grass.
Snapshot | Polytoxic
Part installation, and part dramatic outdoor performance, Snapshot is most of an hour of lockdown reminiscing, dreaming, recovery, survival and bouncing back. Much of the projections were recorded when Polytoxic sent a call-out to artists to record a message and respond and tell us how they were doing.
Yang Liping’s Rite of Spring | Peacock Contemporary Dance Company
Surely, it’s one of the most illustrious and unpredictable experiences any audience-member will have in a theatre. It lurches from the patient, meditative opening to moments of almost pure anarchy. Golden light gives way to pure darkness. Dancers attack and exhaust themselves – euphoric and terrified. It’s a lot.
But, throughout, I kept returning to the ideas of Rite of Spring. That question.
What’s the impact?
Bighouse Dreaming | Declan Furber Gillick
Bighouse Dreaming is the type of work that reminds one of the simple, devastating power of a well-crafted drama … a work that leaves you gasping for breath through sheer storytelling and performance craft.
Giantess | Cassie Workman
[Giantess] is neither scandalous nor tragic, although it offers poignant memories as punctuation to the tale of a little girl, kidnapped by a troll, who will not be released until she finds all the answers, and faces up to her fears. And the answer is revealed through a beautiful show presented as a comedy, but actually a more nuanced performance with storytelling, spoken word, and a fluctuating line of parable.
Daddy | Joel Bray
Joel is a master of charming and working a crowd, but we are never allowed to get comfortable in Daddy. Presented promenade style, Joel weaves and dances around and through us and speaks to us directly throughout … He invites us to get involved and it’s always clear that we can opt out, but this may not be the show for you if you prefer to enjoy live theatre separated from the performer in the comfort of your seat.
The Bluebird Mechanicals | Too Close To The Sun
The Bluebird Mechanicals may be one of the tightest, most considered and deliberate works I’ve ever seen. There isn’t an inch of the show that doesn’t feel like it’s been refined and distilled to its purest, most impactful essence. It knows exactly what it wants to say and exactly how to say it. But, the work’s choice of vocabulary and materials in articulating its ideas are so removed from the norm that, again, it can only easily be described as weird.
Tyrone and Lesley in a Spot | David Megarrity & Nathan Sibthorpe
A co-production with Metro Arts and Brisbane Festival, David Megarrity and Nathan Sibthorpe’s Tyrone and Lesley In A Spot is a ukulele-led dance of screen and song that transports you on a whimsical journey of small discoveries through laughter.
Common People Dance Eisteddfod | Common People Dance Project
Through sheer force of will and an encyclopedic knowledge of 80s choreography, Neridah has created the impossible – the dance off to end all dance offs that citizens from all sides of river and all walks of life could enjoy. Comprising of at least seven choreographed routines, three celebrity judges, over 100 performers and a competition where cheating is encouraged, it became the hottest ticket in town.
TRUTHMACHINE | Counterpilot
Each audience member had to vote first on questions relating to what truth means to them personally, before assessing whether or not they thought I was telling the truth under investigation. The whole idea of truth was under investigation. And the audience was forced to ask themselves, does this even matter anymore?
En Masse | Circa
I adored the scene early in the first act when the cast were tumbled across the stage, blown by the howling winds of winter. This was easily some of the best tumbling I have ever seen, full of energy and purpose, no movement repeated, high-level skills interspersed throughout but not repeated just to garner applause. A fabulous scene.
Dust | DanceNorth
The dancers worked in a choreography that was reminiscent of robots or possessed creatures, it was creepily effective, heads and limbs askew, almost aggressively presenting an internal animosity, a struggle between self and a rogue body.
Umami Mermaids | Anna Straker
The perfect piece to wander across at a festival, in a dark corner where you think there be rainbows and friendly creatures of the deep, but there are only ghouls and destruction and wanton betrayal, and slighted ladies who smell of seaweed and ageing fishes, who bide their time until they can wreak their delicious vengeance.
Yothu Yindi and the Treaty Project & Yirrmal
This is truly political music. Music that heals. Music that challenges. Music to dance to. Music to rise up with