Skyward | Republic of Song
We begin with a beautiful dreamy introduction, a delicate song performed on cello and piano as we watch a mesmerising timelapse. Throughout the performance, Bale explores the inherent urge to escape, to fly free into the sky, and the inevitable sadness that comes with the realisation of gravity, and impossibility, and mortality.
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.
Mutating Roots | Mayu Muto
In Mutating Roots, common aerial apparatus are cleverly transformed beyond their traditional forms in circus. Muto has added interesting textures and shapes to each apparatus, creating new depth, light and shadows to explore these themes.
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.
Elixir | Head First Acrobats
In Elixir, Head First Acrobats have created an almost perfect piece of bubblegum circus pop. Don’t let their glistening six-packs cheeky grins and buffoonery trick you. These three gents are smart and highly skilled entertainers who know how to work an audience.
WonderWombs | The Dust Palace (NZ)
This is top quality contemporary neo-burlesque. Full of provocations that subvert stereotypes of 'woman', it is righteously sex-positive and utterly refreshing for it. Yeah these girls are hot, but it's never about who is watching, it's all about how good it feels within.
Invisible Things | Alex Mizzen
The show pulls out a lot of darkness, a lot of deep hidden internal thoughts, and I realise about a third of the way through that this is very real for Alex, she is not acting this experience, she is having it.
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.
We Live Here | Flipside Circus
It's so good to see these stories on stage, in a world where every other show is about the artists own challenges, self-indulgent narratives of privileged lives. This show advocates for those that have no time to sing their own praises, and is all the more gorgeous for it.
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.
Chasing Smoke | Casus Circus
What makes Chasing Smoke truly stand-out though is that shines a spotlight on each member of the ensemble. These intimate moments prove to be some of the most powerful of the show.
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.
Re:membering | UMWELTCollective
This is deeply personal work. This is about these two sisters; not all sisters, but these ones in particular. The tides of the relationship are marked out, sometimes it is abundantly clear to us the vicissitudes, other-times we are left to wonder.
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.
As If No-one Is Watching | Vulcana Circus and WaW Dance
In As If No-one Is Watching they have created a production that is both an incredibly intimate and dense exploration of women’s internal worlds and a whimsical, gloriously weird, life-affirming celebration of what they can achieve together.
En Masse | Circa
I adored the scene early in the first act when the cast were tumbled across the stage, blown by the howling winds of winter. This was easily some of the best tumbling I have ever seen, full of energy and purpose, no movement repeated, high-level skills interspersed throughout but not repeated just to garner applause. A fabulous scene.