Whiplash | Scott Wings
Whiplash starts as a seemingly straightforward journey into how the disparate parts of Scott’s body battle for control on an awkward first date. Performing on a bare stage with just a stool, a music player and a whole lot of charm, Scott utilises every inch of the space and contorts his body into all manner of ways to take us with him on his hero's journey in the search of his heart.
Titanic: The Movie, The Play | Act/React
Bochenski cheekily turns the appearance and attire of each“Young Rose” into chuckle fodder as she invites them up, and the guest is deftly guided and prompted by the cast, all commendable improvisers who are able to springboard from each audience participants’ lines, however hesitant or giggly the delivery.
The Waiting Game | The Reaction Theory
Callum Ford’s direction was fantastic. The way in which the work was staged and the layout of the space as a restaurant, meant that we were enthralled in the characters’ world from before the show even started.
Amelia Anonymous | Virag Dombay
There are moments in Amelia Anonymous that are truly memorable. A sustained moment of sitting in the rain, symbolised by blue torches flickering in the darkness over a single figure, is genuinely inspired. The warmth of the various relationships covered by the play starts to shine through beautifully towards its conclusion.
#FirstWorldWhiteGirls | Spirit Animal
#FirstWorldWhiteGirls figuratively burnt the house down at the Brisbane Powerhouse's Comedy festival tonight. It's infectious, funny and all too real.
What I’m Here For | Elbow Room
It was enjoyable watching the actors interact with individuals walking by but it was just as intriguing the passers-by try to piece together what was happening in front of them and there was a group of about twenty individuals staring at two or more particular people with headsets on. Some stopped to take photos, others tried to listen in but some just walked by...
Crunch Time | Counterpilot
There’s an explicit attempt to link the democratic processes at play in the work’s conception with debates and developments happening around global politics. Sibthorpe’s notes reference Brexit and Trump. There’s a development within the work that explicitly plays with the idea of leadership spills. If there’s a moment that elevates CrunchTime above a good dinner party, it’s that one.
Notorious Strumpet & Dangerous Girl | Jess Love
The show has enough pithy statements and throwaway jokes that those who haven't experienced mind-numbing addiction will find it funny, moving, an education even, an insight. But for those of us who have been down that path, it is a bittersweet cloudy mirror.
Bitch On Heat | Leah Shelton
Leah doesn’t pull any punches as she utilises high-camp, absurdist, lip-synching performance art to explore the history of the sexualisation and vilification of the female body through ancient myths, porn, the politics of stereotypical 50’s house wives, and revenge movies heroines.
Neon Tiger | La Boite
What is really lovely about this is that it is a side of queer female liaisons that isn’t often shown. The soft, the gentle, the foolish.
BaBel | Backbone
A beautiful, rough, raw, crazy impossibility of show pulled together in two weeks, by international maestro Younes Bachir, a Belgium director renowned for creating amazing large-scale site-specific works.
La Silhouette | Sui Ensemble
Created by Brissie legends Sui Ensemble, this was a roller-coaster of thrills and spills and colourful mayhem, with a brutal message of home truths revealed layer by layer like a very dangerous game of pass the parcel.
Man with the Iron Neck | Joshua Bond & Legs on the Wall
Damn. This show. This fucking show. You must go and see this show.This show will kick you in the guts, leave you reeling from laughter and then breaking your heart multiple times.
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.
Biladurang | Joel Bray
The set is intimate. Obviously. The whole room is five meters by ten. We are offered terry-towelling robes and champagne. It is true, I have been to parties and illicit liaisons like this before, these same mundane walls, the art that becomes commonplace in these holding pens, these anonymous rooms where people stay when they are in-between places, meeting nameless others.
Hamnet | Dead Centre
Children. You cannot trust them. You cannot trust them to know the appropriate etiquette. They might ask you anything.
Ride | Backbone Ensemble
The nature of the tiny venues - the inside of a car - and the lively Saturday night timeslot - makes for an intimate confessional that has guest spilling secrets and demanding phone-jacks. The whole show has a feeling of risk, the kind of chance you take when you jump into a car with a stranger.
Love Letters to Fuckbois | Wightman & Stark
A simple premise: the two protagonists read out so-called love letters to men from their past, all the while discussed with just the right amount of wry humour as you would share over a bottle of cheap white with a girlfriend. The stories contain familiar faces and well-known archetypes we have ALL slipped into bed with. Regrets I've had a few, but maybe not so many as these lasses...
The Longest Minute | Robert Kronk & Nadine McDonald-Dowd
The show starts jovial, cheerful, giving a good Aussie ribbing to audience and players alike. But the skies are drawing in, and we are ultimately plunged into the deeply personal world of the Wright family, a tale of family life in the 80's and 90's, ever shaded by a dark cloud of racism and violence.
Wheel of Fortune | TAM Presents
The class commentary of the original remains firmly on the down low, and leaves you to make your judgements afterwards in the bar; the play sets the scene, but in this modern world of sexual promiscuity are there really any forbidden fruits to scandalize the punters?