Now in his second year as artistic director of the Brisbane festival, David Berthold has come up trumps. Like all the best arts festivals, Brisbane combines daring new productions with established international acts and homegrown crowd pleasers. As the event approaches its final week, Guardian Australia picks the top shows not to be missed.
Hart
On a near pitch black stage a man sits with his back to the audience in a ring of white ochre lit up like fire. Slowly he turns around and begins to talk. In this short but devastating one-man play, Ian Michael of the Noongar people relays stories from the stolen generations. Using true testimonials combined with black and white images projected on stage, many are heart-rending. Critically, no one tale is linear: they are confused and tangled, in much the same way that such damaging government policies have left real lives. As Michael talks he covers himself in ochre, creating clouds of dust that obscure him. It represents, perhaps, the battle to make such histories visible.
Hart is at Theatre Republic – QUT Creative Industries, The Loft until 17 September
A Midsummer’s Night Dream
The UK’s Lyric Hammersmith and Filter Theatre’s production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream has finally made it to Australia. And hands down this is the funniest show at the festival. Taking liberties with the text, the motley cast veers between outrageous irreverence and eye-watering silliness: think food fights, sleazy dances, nerf guns, and unorthodox philosophical musings. Stand out performances include Harry Jardine as Oberon sporting skin-tight blue lycra; John Lightbody as the love-rat Lysander; and Ferdy Roberts as the boozy, bearded Puck – a maintenance man (or maintenance fairy) utterly unimpressed with all the silly shenanigans of mortals.
A Midsummer’s Night Dream is on at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre – Playhouse until 17 September
Blanc de Blanc
Blanc de Blanc (also playing at Perth’s Regal Theatre from 29 September to 23 October) was choreographed by Kevin Maher of Madonna’s Rebel Heart tour fame. Unsurprisingly, it is filthy. Conjure up all the innuendos involving champagne bottles – most obviously the popping of corks and spraying of liquid – and you’re only half way there. Blanc de Blanc is billed as circus/cabaret but this is more burlesque, complete with oodles of salacious stripping, unscrupulous use of the audience, and a firework lit in an upturned butt plug (yes, you read that right). Champagne bottles are used in everything from a makeshift strap-on dildo to an obscene human fountain. Don’t expect high culture or any great circus tricks; this is, simply, downright dirty fun. Just don’t go with your parents.
Blanc de Blanc is on at Arcadia – Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent until 24 September
Lippy
In the year 2000 four women in the small Irish town of Leixlip entered a suicide pact. Barricading the doors shut in their home, they starved themselves to death. One of the only scraps of evidence left behind was CCTV footage of the women talking in a shopping mall. In this confronting play by Ireland’s Dead Centre theatre company, a lip-reader must try and decipher their words to solve the mystery. Starting as comedy with a fake Q&A session involving an actor talking about a play we haven’t seen, it soon descends into outright horror. Above all, Lippy asks if the truth, by its nature, will always be obscured.
Lippy is on at Queensland Performing Arts Centre – Cremorne Theatre until 17 September
Troppo
It’s a crime to visit Queensland without attending a show by Brisbane-based Circa, the circus who have become a hit not only in Australia but worldwide. This premier produced especially for the festival hits all the right notes with jaw-dropping acrobatics and lashings of family appeal. The premise is simple: after being washed up on a desert island in a shipwreck, the characters start to go stir-crazy. Stuck in the sweltering tropics they turn “troppo”. It’s wholesome fun, with lots of silly gags and clowning around; and while Troppo lacks the beauty, elegance, and verve of Circa’s other shows, the kids, at least, will be thrilled.
Troppo is on at South Bank – The Courier-Mail Piazza until 23 September
