Glass Child | The Farm
This is hands down the best piece of storytelling I’ve seen this year. This is a genuine challenge to any other productions to top it for sheer vibrating power. From the first scene, where Maitreyah’s voice cracks just ever so slightly, I know I am witness to something extraordinary. What follows is a whirlwind of emotions, for each of them, and most definitely for me.
Elektra/Orestes | The Hive Collective
To me, Elektra/Orestes highlighted complex family relations, and in particular fraught mother-daughter relations. After all, Sophocles’ Electra inspired Carl Jung’s Electra complex, a psychoanalytical term to describe a girl’s attachment to the mother marked by a sense of competition over the father’s love and attention. The play also made me reflect on the dangers of self-righteousness and the malaise caused by the inability to put oneself in the shoes of others.
"We are here to say yes to your ideas and to help bring them to life" - Katherine Quigley on a new era for Backbone Arts
“It takes a village to raise a child - and Backbone is just one part of that village for many children of all ages, we are here to say yes to your ideas and to help bring them to life. We are here to inspire creation. We are here to make sure that no matter what’s going on in your life, you have a place to call home, where you are loved and accepted for the complex and wonderful person you are."
Five Places to Get Your ‘Acting On’ In Brisbane
When I tell people that I work as an actor, they often go ‘I’ve always wanted to try acting’ or ‘that sounds so fun, I wish I could do it too’. If you are one of those people who have always wanted to get into acting, then guess what? There is a plethora of acting schools in Brisbane that offer weekly/monthly/term based acting classes for adults at both beginning, emerging and established levels of performance. Here’s five amazing independent training spaces.
"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.”
Cattle | Kate Coates and Cale Bain
As per many improv shows, Kate and Cale set up their scenarios with prompts from an audience member. What sets them apart is that some of the best laughs of the set came from in depth discussions with an audience member that followed the prompt. The duo’s natural responses to people’s (over) sharing that came from a place genuine surprise, curiosity and the right amount of gentle teasing was a joy to watch. When they received a response too sincere and moving even for them, they could only respond with, “We can’t mock that!”
Handle With Care | Virag Dombay, Gabby Fitzgerald, Zac Lawrence & Lachlan Driscoll
The play moves around the relationships of the two men in our protagonist Abbie’s life, but at its core the bigger story is that of female friendship, and the damage done when that falls apart. It’s only been in the last few years that the value of female friendship is beginning to be recognised and written about, the true unconditional nature of the love that is shared, that pushes one or the other to step far outside their comfort zone, or to see a little burning kernel of a wildheart hidden in a studious and forlorn wallflower.
Wer ya from? | Big Fork Theatre Improv In Colour
I didn’t know what was gonna happen, I haven’t been to anything like this before, it was fun, it was loose, it was cool. I didn’t feel weird once all night cause some bro made some sexist twat comedy shit comment. I laughed a lot and I felt right at home. Good vibes would recommend.
This Wide Night by Chloe Moss | A Moveable Theatre
With the play only having two characters, and little in set design, This Wide Night relies heavily on the dialogue and body language of the performers. Luckily, the play is in good hands, as Sharde Anne and Julia Johnson are tremendous with their performances and their wide acting range, going from humour to sadness to anger and everything in between. The dialogue sounded natural and the portrayal of Marie and Lorraine are very raw and brutally honest.
Untitled Relationship Experiment | Big Fork Theatre
One part that stuck with me in particular was Samantha’s character’s strained relationship with her mother who refused to see her daughter’s committed lesbian relationship as anything more than a close friendship, even after marriage. It brought to light the combination of humour and pain found in the common queer experience of dealing with family members who are for the most part loving and yet wilfully ignorant or unaccepting of who they are
The Secret Super Hero Galaxy-Travelling Family Band Show & Jam | Big Fork Theatre
I interpreted this scene as a powerful statement about what art at its core is really about; not striving for an illusive ideal of perfection but rather, supporting each other through the process of making something together, going with the flow, embracing imperfection, and having plenty of fun along the way.
Cool Story Bro, Culprits & Interstate Mates | Brisbane Improv Festival
Scenes developed at a rapid pace and build and strange, weird and wonderful directions. They go forward and back in time, explore the most obscure ideas. The improvisers jumped in whenever they got an idea and everyone was given a chance to play and lead. Jasmine’s love of peanut butter and disappointment in how small the containers are at the supermarket, unfolds as a scene of a couple’s illegal obsession with tiny anthropomorphic foods and Aarons tale of travelling in a tiny sleeper train in winter develops into a son taking his parents to school for a career day, who just happen to be stuck living in a fridge.
Those meagre descripions are in no way doing justice to the chaotic hilarity that unfurled before us.
Improvised Dr Who | D4WH
We enter the theatre and seats are filled. The lights switch off, the Spotify play list cuts, the mics not on, we laugh, the audience laughs. We hear “We're having a tech issue, so talk among yourselves”. So, what do a couple of women do seated behind me? Sing the Dr Who theme song, so of course, I join in as do others with a rendition no fan would think was worthy – out of tune, with a couple of dog howls - but what the heck, we were ready to jump in the Tardis to travel to an alternative dimension full of aliens, Daleks, Cybermen and save the world cliches.
The Bull, The Moon & the Coronet of Stars by Van Badham | Directed By Heidi Manché
I am a mere handful of years younger than our playwright and I recognised the tropes enough to know them for what they were – the blue summer dress, the man-hungry vixen, the affair that misfires when a younger woman throws herself at an attractive married man, his classic retreat to the wife, the larrikin who successfully woos the broken-hearted self-imposed-abstinent woman (he “knows about women”). These are the stories that filled a hundred novels when I was a voraciously-read teen and I think I liked them better then than I do now.
Women’s Show and Queer Show | Big Fork Theatre
As it went on, the intricate tale only tightened and strengthened, so much so that if someone had told me this story was carefully crafted and rehearsed, I would have believed them. I think that’s a great testament to the actors’ skill.
Hard Boiled Dick | Edge Improv & Never Before Musical | Ho Hum
I rocked up on the first night of the festival to a line going out the door (and round the corner) of the Ron Hurley theatre. It seems Brisbane has been hungry for improv, and Big Fork Theatre are serving up a feast. I saw back-to-back shows of Hardboiled Dick (Edge Improv) and Never Before Musical (Ho Hum).
Five Independent Performance Venues to put on your 2021 Bucket List
Brisbane has a wild independent arts scene - don’t miss out on all the incredible fabulosity taking place all around you.
Same Penis Forever | Rebel Lyons
Having married and divorced at the age of 24, Rebel Lyons draws upon her own experience to paint a full picture of the discomfort of butting up against a life that has been laid out for you. What a power move. Same Penis Forever was raw, wild, and unapologetic, with a heavy dose of elevator music.
Aftermath | Australasian Dance Collective
A contemporary dance performance to an absolutely riveting electronic set. Honestly, watching that kind of music performed whilst having to sit still in a theatre chair is a practice in self-flagellation. High-octane indeed, the exertion of these young people was extraordinary, and endless.
Hot Mess Comedy | Ting Lim & Sandeep Totlani
The second half is competitive improv and this is where the real fun begins, as the comics are thrown in the deep end by a series of absurd topics written by a few unforgiving audience members. During this part, I could really appreciate the craft, as I witnessed some of the comedians thinking up side-splittingly funny gags on the spot, while some completely bombed under the pressure.