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.
Presented by Briefs in collaboration with Cluster Arts and Brisbane Powerhouse, Club Culture Cabaret was one of the company’s many productions within this year's CircFest. Featuring an “A-list lineup of First Nations ground breakers, movers and shakers”, the event was a celebration of joy, of culture, and of “sexcellent” performance art. Headlined by Dale Woodbridge-Brown, who graced us with both his Cowboy and Clown performances, Club Culture Cabaret also featured the talents of Luna Thicc, Garret Lyon and MALIKA.
Briefs’ masterful execution of the variety show format was particularly evident in this experience I had of oscillating tensions. The moments before a performer entered the stage, there was a sense of a collective inhale. Amidst the applause, the stomping and the “woo” girls doing what they do best, it felt like we all waited with bated breath. Then would come the flash of a heel, or the beginnings of a strut, and the knotted ball of anticipation inside my gut would pop. All at once I felt this rush of relief, of excitement, of joy, and of a deep appreciation for the existence of this crazy thing we call art and for the people who propel it.
One of the moments that stood out for me was listening to Shivannah deliver a relaxed, yet, powerful, Acknowledgement to Country. Before it began, she asked audiences to “unclench our buttholes”; a sentiment which managed to capture the amalgamation of white guilt, white privilege and white ignorance so goddamn eloquently (and evocatively). And she was right. Although the vernacular of Acknowledgements is, albeit slowly, becoming a greater part of societal expectations, it still being approached as a process that is “tacked on” to an event, or situation; not one that is simply ingrained within the act of standing on land that is not your own. Shivannah related this to how you would never enter a house without offering at least a welcome, or an acknowledgement that you’re in someone else's space. Before this I had failed to recognise, let alone unpack, the sense of fear and formality I felt around this process. I was humbled by the opportunity to witness moments of tradition and culture, and to watch how these integrated and entwined themselves within the performances of the artists.
If the room full of smiles leaving the Powerhouse was anything to go by, I have no doubt that this Queensland Premiere of Club Culture Cabaret was just the beginning.
