The Placeholder: A trans narrative takes the stage | Midsumma Festival | fortyfivedownstairs

In a regional town, a close-knit friendship group is navigating two major waves of upheaval at once: the death of a friend and the transition of another. Written by transgender man Ben MacEllen, The Placeholder positions these experiences in tandem, finding space to explore how change, loss, and identity ripple not just through an individual, but through a community.

MacEllen unpacks how these themes came together in the writing process, and what this pairing allowed him to examine that might not have emerged had they been interrogated in isolation. "As a trans man, I naturally draw from things I’ve lived or felt, even if they show up in different ways on the page. Our protagonist, Nic, isn’t a proxy for me, but he definitely carries a few familiar threads, bits of my own transition, and things I’ve picked up from other trans folks over the years."

Kimberley Twiner’s queer world of tentacles and play | Misdumma Festival | Brunswick Mechanics Institute

When Kimberley Twiner takes the stage as a director, audiences know to expect the unexpected. Her latest project for Midsumma Festival, Robert the Octopus, dives into a world where eccentricity and whimsy run wild, where even an octopus can steal the spotlight. We caught up with Twiner where she shares her approach to playful physical theatre, queer storytelling, and bringing this delightfully bizarre production to life.

Robert the Octopus weaves absurdity and romance into a story that promises unexpected twists and whimsical charm. It’s a world that director Kimberley Twiner couldn’t resist exploring on stage. "For starters I love what is possible with a three hander play! I love what becomes possible when we bring animal life onto the stage - one of the characters is an octopus," she tells me. "I also love that the writer, Alex Duncan, has put his faith in a rather irrational sounding plot and handed it to me. For me, this is the beauty of theatre: the suspension of disbelief in real time played in an unsinkable and relentless fashion!"

Milo Hartill on being seen, heard, and unapologetically funny | Misumma Festival | Chapel Off Chapel

Milo Hartill’s show Black, Fat and Fa**y is a bold, joyful exploration of cabaret, storytelling, and lived experience of being a Black, fat, and queer person. In it, Hartill draws on humour, music, and personal insight to tackle both the hard and fun parts of life, delivering a production that is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. In this interview, Hartill reflects on how their identities have moulded the stories she tells, the decisions behind what makes it into the show, and the delicate balance of revealing her own truths while keeping audiences engaged, laughing, and thinking differently.
 
At the heart of the show is Hartill’s reality of moving through the world as a Black, fat, queer person, and how that intersection of identities informs not only how she is seen and treated, but the tales, humour, and honesty she brings to the stage. "The life I lead and how I am treated is because of these markers - Black, fat, and queer - and it is endlessly impactful to the way I present myself and my stories," she says. "It influences how I see society in a multitude of ways and to see the best and worst of people. It shows me the gravity of people's bias, opinions, and assumptions, how finding and cultivating community can be life-changing, and how I have to work way harder than most to hit the same goal posts. It also shapes the way I view politics, as many factors in life and politics that barely affect privileged people will almost always affect me in some way. It determines how willing people are to hire me for jobs, depending on how the majority of people feel about brown, fat, and queer people."

She Slayed: A drag murder mystery too fabulous to miss | Midsumma Festival | Victorian Pride Centre

After a sold-out run at the 2024 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, She Slayed: A Drag Murder Mystery returns for a Midsumma Festival season, bringing its blend of hilarious antics and over-the-top musical numbers back to Melbourne. We sat down with Cabaret Queen Dolly Diamond to talk about the cast, the chaos, and what makes performing this drag murder mystery so irresistibly entertaining.

She Slayed was initially staged in March 2024, so a return season to Midsumma has been much anticipated. While the ensemble looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage, Diamond confirms that spark wasn’t just for show. "I definitely feel like I’ve reached that point of my life where I only want to do the shows where I know I’m going to have fun," she says. "This show is exactly that, and the cast is made up of friends I’ve known for quite a few years. That is such a privileged position to be in and I’m grateful for that."

Gay drama Afterglow is set to leave audiences hot and steamy | Midsumma Festival | Chapel Off Chapel

Afterglow has travelled a long way since its off-Broadway debut, gathering a devoted following as it moved from New York to London and beyond. Now the intimate queer drama about a married gay couple who open their relationship up to a third, lands in Australia, carrying nearly a decade of evolution in its wake and a creator who has grown alongside it. Sitting down with writer and director S. Asher Gelman, it becomes clear that the play’s longevity has only sharpened its focus and questions, and stretched out the emotional terrain it explores.

The conversation with Gelman naturally begins with how his relationship to the story has shifted over time and what this new chapter might reveal. "Afterglow is inspired by my first experience with open relationships and polyamory (though back then, I never would have described my situation as “polyamory")," he tells me. "Since writing the play nine years ago, my understanding of open relationships and polyamory has significantly evolved. I am fortunate enough to share my life with my husband Mati (on whom the character of Alex is based) and my partner Stefano (on whom no characters are based, but has deepened my insight into Darius’ position in the play). The three of us operate as a single family unit, so the exploration of the role of family and community has expanded. Whenever we do this play, we get the chance to go deeper and uncover more layers, and I’m keen to get back in the room with these incredibly talented individuals to continue that process."

Ghostware review | The Motley Bauhaus

The reach of AI into everyday life is becoming both alarmingly blatant and quietly ingenious. We’ve grown used to fabricated videos, fake news and dodgy deepfaked interviews cluttering our feeds. In Cat Finch and Rose Bishop’s Ghostware, that same technology is recast as something at once unsettling and strangely tender, giving the audience room to consider death, grief and the stubborn persistence of love through AI.

Jordan Barr steps into the role of Gertrude, with sharp comedic timing and genuine emotional depth, letting us feel every wobble in her world as she continues to live in the shadow of her sister’s death. Then the impossible happens, she gets a phone call from her sister, or at least an AI imitation of her. These so-called GriefBots let the bereaved cling to their loved ones, whether out of guilt, longing or plain old affection. But when the AI version of Beatrice starts spruiking discounted Ray-Bans and cut-price therapy sessions, Gertrude sets out to have the GriefBot shut down, only to discover that getting rid of it is far tougher than she ever expected.

Jessie Ngaio Smith is prescribing connection, ritual and reflection in Magical Prescriptions | Midsumma Festival | Meat Market

In Magical Prescriptions, Jessie Ngaio Smith becomes a doctor of a different kind, offering ten-minute, one-on-one appointments where she listens, honours silences, and responds with a personalised artwork. Drawing on her own journey of chronic pain, misdiagnosis and dehumanisation in the medical system, Ngaio Smith uses the project to explore connection, intuition and ritual. We sat down with her to talk about where this unusual work began, what it asks of her and why she believes our systems of care need to be reimagined from the ground up.

Ngaio Smith’s experiences in the medical system, along with her time in the aged care and disability support sector, pushed her to look for the humanity that hides in a classic doctor’s appointment. "I was thinking about the strange, sad absurdity of us trying to source support and healing within the tight confines of a 15-minute bulk billed doctor’s appointment. I was also studying for my Certificate in Aged Care and Disability Support which was depressing and it forced me to recognise how broken and under resourced our systems of care are," she tells me. "I wondered to myself if art might offer something which feels so lacking in a doctor’s appointment; a connection that is wilder and weirder. It has been my experience that we are suffering, and it can be incredibly difficult to find someone who will actually listen and sit with the discomfort of witnessing suffering."