Weaving a rich tapestry of community and culture, the 2024 Brisbane Festival invites audiences to experience a city-wide celebration of arts and live performances throughout September. With so much on offer, Australian Arts Review takes a look at 12 events worth checking out:
Adrift
Metro Arts: 11 – 28 September
In an infinite ocean, floating in the unknowable spaces between each other, together we create worlds, uncover mysteries, and fill in the blanks in each other’s stories. Part mystery, part game, Adrift is a participatory theatre work that brings audience members together to uncover a story exploring feelings of isolation and our fraught relationship with nature in the face of a potential mass extinction event. Following instructions through headsets, participants create detailed worlds as tiny architecture reveals itself, inviting participants to interact with and discover the world around them. Lights turn on, water emerges, and mechanical discoveries are made. Now immersed in the mystery of Adrift, participants explore a series of fantastical true stories of infatuated dolphins, lonely whales, and remote lighthouses. Is our relationship with nature just as fraught as our relationships with each other, and can we find hope across an ocean of unknown?
Big Sculpture
Brisbane Powerhouse: 2 September – 6 October
The Cairns Indigenous Art Fair’s Big Sculpture touring exhibition is a captivating showcase, presenting the cultural talents of emerging and prominent artists. The exhibition promises an immersive visual journey through the diverse narratives woven by Indigenous artists, transcending boundaries and embracing a rich tapestry of perspectives. The juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary elements allows for a nuanced exploration of Indigenous identity and the evolution of artistic expression over time, highlighted by the resilience and creativity of Queensland’s leading contemporary First Nations artists like Brian Robinson, Shirley Macnamara, Mavis Benjamin, Toby Cedar, Dr. David Jones, Alma Norman, Marlene Norman, Hans Ahwang, Ian Waldron and Rhonda Woolla.
BRIEFS FACTORY – The Art Boat!
Pontoon B – Clem Jones Promenade: 30 August – 21 September
The Art Boat, reimagined, is curated by the world-class local legends BRIEFS FACTORY. Resident artists Fez Faanana, Mark Winmill and Brett Rosengreen will be joined by a dazzling array of special guests selected from Brief’s fabulous friends and artists from across the festival. Step aboard and immerse yourself in an unforgettable voyage through the heart of Brisbane. Against the stunning backdrop of the ever-expanding city skyline, journey along the iconic waterways, tracing the mighty banks that shape the Brisbane River. The city ambience is remixed into decadent DJ sets sound-tracking the extravaganza and punk that is burlesque, the drama and defiance of drag and the addictive and attention-grabbing power of circus.
Eucalyptus – The Opera
Concert Hall – QPAC: 4 – 5 September
Eucalyptus is an ageless story of love and longing, about a daughter and a father – Ellen and Holland. Ellen’s overprotective father has created a safe haven from the world – a forest of eucalypts. But is the forest a sanctuary? Or is Ellen, like Rapunzel, imprisoned? Ellen encounters a Stranger amongst her father’s trees – a storyteller with enchanting tales of far-away lands. In this dappled landscape lurks both beauty and wonder. The score is mysterious and colourful, with moments of dramatic intensity and hushed beauty. The libretto by Meredith Oakes is poetic and spare. Renowned Australian playwright Michael Gow directs Jonathan Mills’ new opera based on Murray Bail’s Miles Franklin Award-winning novel.
Fancy Long Legs
La Boite Theatre: 12 – 22 September
Fancy Long Legs is a brand-new glittery and vibrant musical adventure for children, based on a new picture book by Brisbane’s international tinsel and craft icon, Rachel Burke. Fancy Long Legs is the story of Fancy, a spider who loves to create but struggles to stay focused on her creative task of web-building. With the support of her friends, Fancy goes on a beautiful journey of self-discovery to find her own style and make something no one else can. Fancy Long Legs is a ground-breaking, fully accessible work for young audiences and the young at heart. This uplifting story takes a sparkly and relatable look at neurodivergence, offering a playful and glitter-covered adventure of acceptance, staying true to yourself, celebrating differences and harnessing your inner fanciness!
Kitchen Studio
Metro Arts: 31 August – 26 October
Kitchen Studio is a place where sculpture, food and ideas are interchangeable and digestible. The rules of hospitality will be broken, and nourishment redefined. During the day, Kitchen Studio opens its doors to those curious to explore the dormant sculptural dining room. When the sun sets, the installation’s artist steps into the kitchen to host a provocative sensory journey for an intimate group of guests. Artist Elizabeth Willing’s large-scale installation encourages guests to form new perspectives on the modern diet by exploring, engaging, and experiencing edible materials in unconventional ways.
GRIMM
Cremorne Theatre – QPAC: 31 August – 6 October
Shake & Stir Theatre Co beckons you into a world where fairytales are reimagined with a profound intensity. Be warned, these bedtime stories may cause nightmares… Within darkened corridors and haunting landscapes, Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood emerge from the shadows, as the truth behind their stories – warts and all – boil and bubble to the surface. From the company behind the award-winning stage spectacles Frankenstein, Jane Eyre and A Christmas Carol comes this bold adaption of tales from the Brothers Grimm, in a bewitching theatre experience, adapted by Nelle Lee and directed by Dan Evans. Expect a lavish, loud, and lucid night!
Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show
South Bank Piazza: 30 August – 15 September
Jean Paul Gaultier is set to shake up Australian audiences when his stunning creation, Fashion Freak Show – fifty years of pop culture through the eyes of fashion’s enfant terrible. An explosive combination of both a musical revue and fashion show, the production depicts the sensational life of Jean Paul Gaultier against a backdrop of his generation’s most defining political and cultural changes. As author, director and costume designer, Jean Paul Gaultier takes a look at our times in both an extravagant and tender way and invites us behind the scenes into his world filled with excess, poetry and magic. As part of this unmissable event, Jean Paul Gaultier has designed hundreds of new exclusive outfits that will feature alongside some of his most iconic creations on the Brisbane runway. Conceived like a grand party featuring an exuberant playlist- from Disco to Funk, from Pop to Rock and New Wave and Punk – Jean Paul Gaultier will surprise us yet again!
Lighting the Dark
Thomas Dixon Centre: 12 – 14 September
A bold new work by Chris Dyke, a Kaurna (Adelaide) based dancer and choreographer living with Down Syndrome. Chris, the embodiment of love itself, emanates compassion, transcending limitations and inviting us all into his radiant embrace. Yet, amidst his rich internal landscape of dreams and boundless imagination, the world often fails to see beyond the cover of the book – a book that if we dared to open, would reveal radical inspiration, creative brilliance, hope and love. Inspired by Chris’ real-life heroes Banksy, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, Lighting the Dark shines brightly on Chris’ profoundly moving and life-affirming adventure through the world. Throughout the work, each of these icons acts as a mirror reflecting Chris’ expansive perception and limitless sense of possibility. With the mesmerising Dancenorth Ensemble by his side, Chris leads the way, transforming the stage into a portal where love and light illuminate darkness.
Spectrum of Happiness
Portside Wharf: 30 August – 21 September
Created by 27June Studio, a Bangkok based creative technology and experience design studio, Spectrum of Happiness is an interactive swing that invite people of all genders and generations to experience shared moments of happiness together. By swaying on the swings, people activate the movement of the LED ball over their heads, and also create a collaborative music together where their communal joy brightens above the sky. The rainbow symbolises an optimistic, new, bright beginning. It embodies diversity in its diverse colours, the same as diversity in each individual, which together shines as the beloved and celebrated rainbow of humankind. Let your inner child come out and hop on this unique swing set!
Trent Dalton’s Love Stories
Playhouse – QPAC: 8 – 29 September
Inspired by a personal moment of profound love and generosity, bestselling author – and one of Australia’s finest journalists – Trent Dalton spent two months in 2021 gathering stories on his sky-blue 1960s Olivetti typewriter, on a prominent street corner in Brisbane’s CBD. Speaking to Australians from all walks of life, he asked them one simple thing: Can you please tell me a love story? What followed was Dalton’s unashamedly joyous collection of Love Stories, and the creative team behind the smash-hit page-to-stage adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe (Sam Strong and Tim McGarry) reuniting to bring to life Dalton’s latest warm, wise, poignant, funny and moving story about love, in all its guises.
Volcano
Brisbane Powerhouse: 30 August – 14 September
The multi-award-winning Volcano invites audiences into a voyeuristic journey played out across four performances full of surprise and intrigue, crossing the boundaries of experimental theatre, contemporary dance and psychological sci-fi thriller. Acclaimed director and choreographer Luke Murphy blurs the lines of form and expectation, reality and fiction in live performance made for the Netflix era, part theatre, part television series, part dance.
The 2024 Brisbane Festival runs from 30 August – 21 September. For more information and full program, visit: www.brisbanefestival.com.au for details.
Images: Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show (supplied) | Eucalyptus (supplied) | GRIMM (supplied) | Spectrum of Happiness (supplied)