What’s HOT at the 2017 Feast Festival

Feast Festival The Duetaholics Dean Arcuri and Miz Ima StarrAdelaide’s annual Feast Festival kicks off its 21st year this weekend – with over 70 shows across a vast array of performing and visual arts events, walks and talks, film screenings, community events, queer forums and more. Australian Arts Review takes a look at a few events worth checking out:

Burlesque By Force
Nexus Arts: 15 – 18 November
Pre-lights, pre-music, pre-tease, a performer invites you to a raw pre-show catharsis of personal and political as he prepares to perform. Twisting genre and metaphor with themes of consent and sexuality, consider yourself trigger warned.

Body Map
Nexus Arts: Saturday 18 November
A fleshy trip down the Body Map strip as Australia’s most celebrated queer performance artist Glitta Supernova guides you on an intimate fleshy foray through the parallel universes of 90s club culture & performative theatre. Red light surrealism bridging intimacy & objectification, in a sixty-minute physical freeway that won’t be tarred for convenience. Experience the explosive iconoclastic visionary of tits & art.

The Duetaholics
Nexus Arts: 23 – 25 November
Looking to reignite your relationship? You need a one-on-one with entertainment’s least-likely newlyweds Dean Arcuri and Miz Ima Starr! Trapped in a sexless marriage and loving every minute of it, these improbable belters reinvent the wedding reception as the ultimate gay celebration of song. Fresh from their all-singing all-dancing honeymoon in Vegas, The Duetaholics unveil their entirely unpatented recipe for everlasting marital bliss.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
Raj House: Wednesday 15 November
Gay male identities are explored in this collection of superb short films from what it means to be a gay Muslim to the escapades of a young man working in a sauna.

GALS
Migration Museum: continues to 1 December
In 1997 Jenny Scott recognised the value of Feast to Adelaide’s LGBTIQ community. She desperately wanted to be part of the first Feast and presented an exhibition she titled GALS (Great Adelaide Lesbians). Her exhibition was held in Beans Bar. In this exhibition Jenny revisits the photos and honours the women who gave themselves to her camera.

The New Masc
Oz Nightclub: 21 – 24 November
How does one identify as a man? What is the definition of masculine? How does it apply to our society? We meet four humans who challenge the mind and spirit and test their own versions of what defines them as men, as dancers, as artists. The New Masc is a genre defining dance work, challenging the typical stereotypes of masculinity.

The Music of Great Composers
Pilgrim Church: Saturday 25 November
Robin Higgs OAM has performed piano recitals in London, Berlin, San Francisco Amsterdam and extensively in Adelaide. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for his services to music as a teacher, concert organiser, broadcaster and recording artist. For Feast, Robin will play music of the Great Composers including Chopin, Liszt and Debussy and talk about their lives. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Robin play and recount amazing stories.

Poetry Feast
Halifax Café: Saturday 25 November
A rare opportunity to enjoy four widely published South Australian lesbian poets reading their work: Miriel Lenore – whose sharp eye and wry humour explores the relationship between people and place, the environment and women; Ray Tyndale – performance poet whose books include Sappho at Sixty. Her current passion is writing illustrated haiku or haiga; Mij Tanith – reading from her epic poem about an inner-city community garden; and Rachel Manning – whose work is political, domestic, sometimes humorous, precisely crafted with a twist in the tail.

Sound Bath
Raj House: 19 – 20 November
Join Sound Sacred Resonance for a deep sound bath experience fusing live crystal & Tibetan bowls, cosmic synths & harmonic vocals. Sound baths are unique healing performances that create a space for you to let go, lay down and be washed over with waves of ancient sounds and harmonic tones; a peaceful mind-body-spirit experience taking you into relaxation & meditation.

When I was 21
Raj House: continues to 25 November
No 21st birthday is complete without a slideshow! Pick your own birthday soundtrack (using Spotify) and slideshow theme (using Instagram hashtags) before entering the birthday room. Bring some friends or take a selfie with a projected/virtual new acquaintance. This interactive multimedia installation allows you to explore collective memories, while creating new ones for the Feast archive.

The 2017 Feast Festival continues to 26 November. For more information and full program, visit: www.feast.org.au for details.

Image: Dean Arcuri and Miz Ima Starr feature in The Duetaholics (supplied)