Not all venues are created equal
Come with me as I explore the accessibility of the venues that I have attended during the Brisbane Festival.
Unveiling Shadows | Joshua Taliani
Taliani expertly leads the audience on a journey through krump, bounce, and other hip-hop or street styles; vogue femme and hands performance; and the intersection of these styles with his contemporary dance background as well as his First Nations cultural practises. I use expertly here in the senses that he is (1) a phenomenal technician of all these styles, (2) an exceedingly evocative storyteller, and (3) the master of the world this work takes place in
The Telephone - The Lord Mayor’s City Hall Concert | Gian Carlo Menotti
I wasn’t sure what to expect from a one hour long, free opera sung in English, but after seeing The Telephone, I can say it was a delight. Cleverly presented and beautiful. The Telephone entertained and amazed the audience in a packed-out venue, ultimately providing an accessible entry point to opera for a modern audience.
Chatter | Spencer Novich
Great art happens when the artist is willing and able to externalise the most true and human parts of themselves on stage for an audience. Chatter is absurd, funny, confronting, and feels deeply real and undeniably honest. It is a compelling rollercoaster of an hour that loops through the silly and sad with a deft artistic hand and slick sound and lighting design. I only wish that I had been able to review this show at the start of its season, so I could have told everyone I know that they simply had to see it.
White Noise | Touch Compass
White Noise is a piece of performance art that communicates aspects of lived experience as a mother with disability, and encourages us all to ‘consider our place in the conversation.’ Dance and circus are at the centre of a show that is an all-encompassing artistic event that incorporates voice, animation, art, microphone manipulation, and an excellent soundscape.
The Natural Horse | Salad Days Collective
The Natural Horse is a deeply strange play, in more ways than one. A dark comedy about an ex-Soviet family and their struggles with the American dream, it's a work with a lot of lofty concepts and low-brow comedy, much of which is achieved with a scrappy heart that I appreciated.
Daydreamer | The Travelling Rose Theatre
Director / scriptwriter, India Rose has assembled a stellar cast to deliver her powerful autobiographical unflinching script that addresses what it means to live with this unseen disability. All in a mere sixty minutes.
Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett | Sheridan Harbridge & Sarah Goodes
Harbridge doesn’t so much play Chrissy as resurrect her. For two hours, the audience is made to feel the dangerous voltage between sex and fear, mockery and obedience, survival and self-destruction. Amplified is cabaret at its most alive: irreverent, haunting, and fiercely electric. Like Chrissy Amphlett herself, it demands we ask what rock really is—before it spits in our face and leaves us begging for more.
Wired Differently | Screech Arts & Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre
As we have come to expect from Screech Arts, Wired Differently is honest, direct, clever, entertaining, funny, authentic and courageous. Thanks to the support, talents and creativity of Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre, Wired Differently is an inspiring and ultimately moving celebration of what it means to be alive.
Elements of Freestyle | ISH Dance Collective
Elements of Freestyle is the definition of defying gravity— a thrilling collision of dance, extreme sports, and classical music. Imagine raw power meeting refined artistry in a high-octane performance that shatters genre boundaries and challenges every expectation. From start to explosive finale, it held the audience spellbound. You can’t afford to look away. Simply put: Wow!
6 Degrees | Chimera Arts
Chimera Arts has created a bold new work that explores the ways in which our lives are often closely inter-connected, and the potential of that social network. The use of ‘100 metres of chunky yarn’ is a clever device to reinforce messages about connection, and about the unravelling of power, represented through the excellent set design, and in the ways in which the artists gradually tear down the barriers and emerge from underneath the pieces.
Icons Alive! | Access Arts and The Undercover Artist Festival
Icons Alive! is bold, demonstrative, expressive, warm, welcoming, emotional and downright brilliant. This multitalented and gifted cast of performers with disability excelled on every level in pushing boundaries, pushing buttons, but above all, pushing for change. Kudos to MC Karen Lee Roberts – her outrageously gorgeous costumes plus her ebullient onstage persona kept the adrenaline rush at full throttle.
Baleen Moondjan | Stephen Page
Page has surpassed my expectations – he is delving into new and more diverse forms of inspiration and creative expressions as can be seen in Baleen Moondjan that will keep the flames of wisdom, ceremony, tradition, culture burning even brighter.
TINA — A Tropical Love Story | Ben Graetz
TINA - A Tropical Love Story is a fun one-hour cabaret showcase of First Nations’ talent that spotlights the talents of Ben Graetz/Miss Ellaneous, and gives a platform for local and emerging artists; great frocks, charming stories, excellent lip sync and interpretation, and solid musical choices.
A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen (or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry) | Joshua Hinton
A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen made for heartwarming theatre. Its soulful unfolding is a testimony to the transformative power of stories, especially the ones we relish and rely on for the sustenance of our selfhood.
The WOW Show: In Search of the Hope Brigade | WOW (Women of the World) Australia
Overall, WOW: Searching for the Hope Brigade was a well-structured, organised, and slickly-run show with a very famous host. It has such potential to be a true actionable starting point for many women who have felt the difficulties of systemic sexism and gender violence, and who need an accessible entry point to do more.
Phantastic Ferniture, supported by Juice Webster | Tivoli in the Round
More than just a concert series, the ‘in the round’ program continues a tradition of reimagining how live music is staged in Brisbane. It transforms a historic theatre into a circle of connection.
The Lovers | Shake & Stir Theatre Co
As a lover of both Shakespeare and musicals, I was thrilled to hear that Shake & Stir were bringing The Lovers—a contemporary musical reimagining of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—to Brisbane. Remixing Shakespeare’s classic text with a high-energy pop score and a bold modern attitude, this new musical by Laura Murphy promises humour, romance, and magical spectacle in equal measure.
The Chronicles | Stephanie Lake Company
I could just sum up the experience of watching the latest Stephanie Lake Company work, The Chronicles, in one word: wow. But I feel that readers might just demand a few reasons as to why wow. In a mere 75 minutes, The Chronicles reminds us of the cycle of our lives: of the frenzied ‘running to stand still’ work, but also of the moments of beauty, tenderness, and connection… and the inevitability of our final breath.
Congratulations, Get Rich! | La Boite Theatre
‘Congratulations, Get Rich” reminded me of the value in hearing stories that come from a place of deep cultural specificity — stories that, regardless of your background, tap into shared experiences of love, loss, and connection. It’s rare to see something so intimate and culturally specific on stage, yet still feel so universal — and for me, that’s what made it clear how important it is to keep sharing diverse stories in theatre.