An Unquiet Grave | Blue Stockings
The full moon in Taurus shines bright over the city as I make way to The Station for An Unquiet Grave and the chaos of the early morning’s lunar eclipse still vibrates through the air. The ambience is perfect; low light, candles lit, witchy music, and witchy people in witchy outfits.
“Gives us space to laugh while we consider the enormity of this crisis.” Celia White on latest Vulcana production ‘IMPACT’
Our favourite medium is circus so it was important to tackle this subject and how we tell these kind of stories through this modality. It will be really interesting to see how the audience responds a series of images, a series of tipping points.
Siva Mai Club | District41 & Oceanik Village
Siva Mai Club does not just speak to Pasifika and Indigenous people, no matter your cultural backgrounds, it is special to be a part of that communion in that 75 mins with a dash of island style humour.
Batshit | Leah Shelton
Leah Shelton’s BATSHIT was fast and frenzied. Inspired by Leah’s grandmother’s experiences of mental illness and forced medical treatment, the show was equally intimate and hard hitting. Kicking off with an ear shattering soundscape that was brilliantly timed with the lighting design, the precision of the scenographic elements were a highlight of the show.
The Knock 'Em Downs | Clint Bolster & Annie Lee
Lee and Bolster were painfully ambivalent, even indifferent, to anyone and everyone’s presence. And best of all, when audience’s participation didn’t cut the mustard, they made no attempt to hide their disappointment. If your ball throwing skills were aimless, you knew it. If you took too long to hand over your ticket, you knew it. If your hoop throws onto the pointy clown noses were lacklustre, you knew it. And not just because of the clown’s body language – with impatient eyes and slouched shoulders – but also because of the ‘loser’ sound que they’d hit each time someone’s efforts deserved public condemnation.
Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t | Betty Grumble
The way the content is presented you can’t help but talk about it, think about it and write about it. These conversations and thoughts are creating little ripples that are flowing out to the wider community. Every time Grumble performs another ripple is created. So perhaps a sex clown can save the world, one ripple at a time.
5 reasons to get your mates together and head to Jungle Love this weekend
Well here at Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane we don’t often cross the river - but when we do, we go all the way into the mountains and dance all weekend. That’s right, that gorgeous collective of arts lovers and boho dreamers is gathering for the next instalment of Jungle Love.
Show Ponies | Brisbane Writers Festival
essa may ranapiri was the final one to take the stage, delivering an intoxicating and hypnotic poem threaded with the personification of an echidna as a woman who has no choice but to be violent for their voice to be heard. Accompanied by a beautiful score from their homeland, it was a poem that will stay with me for some time. Utterly striking.
"I don’t want pain to be my legacy." Tristan Niemi on subverting the expectations of theatre
The artists that I’m close with, when we talk about our practice, we often come to a place of discussing this pressure we feel to be in pain in order to making art of value. But when a layer of othering, as you put it, is added to that the pressure becomes intensified and localised to the “otherness” we are branded with. I, personally, plan on being a working artist for the rest of my life and I don’t want pain to be my legacy. I don’t want the next generation of artist to have to inherit that from me and feel that same pressure. So, I’m using ASK to point out the despicable nature of this pressure.
Brown Church | Naavikaran
“Brown Church is a work in progress”, declares Naavikaran, and it’s clear that they have much to say. Thank those Gods within Naavi that they have created a space to share this. The very clearly rehearsed and intentional poetry recited is of considerable expertise, sheening the POC queer space into the light.
Banquet | Chevron Showgirls
I’m a sucker for sideshow, and there were some very neatly presented skills on the stage. Better than that, the sideshow was wrapped up in beautiful daydream, where beauties wandered in and out of vision doing nonsensical, fabulous, dangerous things. Sideshow is often a showman’s trick, a five-minute throwaway routine with a big bang finish. This was different, it played with the skills, made them into little stories, eddies in a dream. It was very nice indeed.
DISTURBO | Bare Legs Circus
DISTURBO is a striking exploration of self-revelation and relationship, of queer embodiment and emancipation. I am going to throw it into the ring of New Circus, an uncategorizable cacophony of circus skills, drag, kitsch, acrodance, movement, storytelling, music, mime, and physical theatre.
101 Ways to Stare At A Wall | Sharmila Nezovic
Sharmila Nezovic is a thinker. An artist who layers ideas on inspirations and metaphors, who intersperses themes from across her lifetime of artmaking into curious installations. A one-time event, 101 Ways to Stare at a Wall is simultaneously a critique of our over-urbanised lives, hemmed in by the endless cemented infrastructure of modern cities, and also a kind of love letter to the hidden beauty of accidental architecture and human place-making.
Rat Dog Double Bill | Esther Dougherty & Siobhan Gibbs
Surrealist, and dripping with symbolism, the show was ludicrously, awkwardly funny, a philosopher’s treat. A complex tangle, perplexing and challenging perhaps for anyone looking for a fluffy night out. But perhaps not.
Vibrations | Dots+Loops
I am greeted by the delightfully odd, creatively fruity and ASMR-inspired sounds of Provocative Vibrations. Clearly extremely well thought and articulated and AT THE SAME TIME an unnerving chaotic mash-up of sound, action, noise and voice, this is a cool weird experience. There is something so delightful to think that right now, in Brisbane, there are people making such a fabulously strange mash-up of noises, and rehearsing them perfectly, and there are eager audiences out there braying to get a hold of it. It’s heart-warming, it really is.
"It’s the weird house party of your dreams." - Dots+Loops bring forth their latest art mash-up
It’s the weird house party of your dreams! Picture a big party at your best mate’s Queenslander, add three awesome adventurous musical duos, and make it about 10% weirder than you currently have in mind. We have bulk drums, we have synths galore, we have a clothesline, it’s all there!
"We want our patrons to value live art." - DARKWORLD Festival set to tantalise this weekend
“We want to erase the blurred lines between these individual industries that often operate, and are mostly considered as separate. What’s exciting is the opportunity for demographics to collide under one roof, and new potential friendships to develop across the line-up.”
Booff | Clint Bolster
A delightfully imposing clown, when captured in the intimate setting of the tea room, Booff becomes even larger than life. I felt quite giddy, it’s such a space to step into, an otherworldly experience. If you were to enter this beautiful parlour from the chaos of a summer festival, you would be instantly transported to another world entirely. In this Booff has done that most perfect of magic theatre tricks, he has made the outside go away and the inside somewhere else.
Tales from the Colony | Voices of Colour & Skindeep Collective
Escalating emotions aside, one of the many highlights of the night was sharing the same space with such a rich mix of people of colour from so many different ethnic backgrounds. This truly felt like being back home again. Besides the delivery of the original material, what impressed was the message of hope and reconciliation this conveyed. The youth of the performers belied the intensity and ferocity with which they boldly embraced their storytelling by speaking out about taboo subjects.
Three Unmissable Acts at Yonder
Following its successful debut in 2019, Yonder Festival is back for another glorious weekend of art, theatre, music, dance and workshops. This year the line-up is rich with fresh independent acts, grown right here in our own backyard. To help you navigate your way through the program, here are three promising performance picks to point your peepers at.