Estrogenesis - Next Wave Festival review

Transgender bodies, identity and environment serve as the focus of Embittered Swish's new work with their Next Wave Festival show, Estrogenesis. Taking on a technology themed approach to gender, the performance art piece explores what happens when you alter the 'hardware' of gender and what the ramifications of such an act are.

Performed by Mossy 333, Romy Fox, Bobuq Sayed and Mick Klepner Roe, we witness several scenes that delve into what it is to be trans through a variety of art mediums including spoken word, music and dance. There are some interesting issues and themes raised, including Sayed’s spoken word on the trans body and the differences that exist within the trans community.

SEER - Next Wave Festival review

Using Edgar Allan Poe’s short story Shadow – a Parable as its inspiration, experimental theatre artist and stage designer House of Vnholy's SEER is an immersive exploration of darkness and silence and a study on being alone. Performed as part of the Next Wave Festival, this site-specific show at the Darebin Arts Centre combines ritual and poetry to encourage us to consider not only our life and our death but also the part in between.

The most powerful part of SEER takes place inside the main theatre of the Darebin Arts Centre where you took a seat in a specially designed booth facing the stage. There was something very eerie about being the only person in a theatre that can seat almost 400 people. I constantly felt like figures were emerging from the stage, standing up from the seats and staring at me through the darkness. No doubt the haunting soundscape designed by Jannah Quill contributed to this disorientation, and along with the light images being projected onto the stage, I was continually questioning if I was experiencing a painful death or an uplifting rebirth.

Crunch Time - Next Wave Festival review

Imagine having a five-course meal with a group of strangers, where you must democratically vote on all the ingredients that will be used. What if someone is vegetarian or has allergies to pineapple? Or simply doesn't like spicy food? Presented as part of Next Wave Festival, Counterpilot's Crunch Time has its participants doing just that, and as a result, leaves them thinking about much more than just their food choices.

Co-founded by Sandra Carluccio and Nathan Sibthorpe, Counterpilot's performative dinner party sits us around a table and through the use of some interactive tools, we vote on each ingredient that our guest chef will prepare in a kitchen that is a few metres away from where we dine. The chefs for each session are public figures in the arts world and include Georgie Meagher, the Director and CEO of Next Wave, and Simon Abrahams, the Artistic Director of Melbourne Fringe. In our session, we are treated to the culinary expertise of Wesley Enoch, the Artistic Director of Sydney Festival.

Carmilla: A Ghost Story for Theatre review

Carmilla- A Ghost Story for the Theatre is a show that lives up to its name. Written by Adam Yee after the 1872 novella by Sheridan Le Fanu, the story follows a father and his daughter whose lives are interrupted by the arrival of a beautiful stranger, Carmilla. There is an air of mystery surrounding Carmilla as to who – and what – she is, and how her existence threatens everything that this family holds near. 

However, Carmilla is not just a theatre performance but also a musical one with Tom Pugh conducting a live chamber orchestra (Elizabeth Barcan, Pri Victor, Lyndon Chester, Rosanne Hunt, Edit Golder and Yee) to create the score as events unfold. Also composed by Yee, there is a gothic and unnerving atmosphere in the music and in that regard, there is much to engage with.

Deceptive Threads review

What do a nineteenth century Lebanese immigrant and an Australian singer / spy have in common? They are both the grandfathers of David Joseph and in Deceptive Threads, Joseph digs into the mystery of these men and how despite their pasts, they have both ended up playing a prominent role in his present and continue to do so with his future.

Joseph and Karen Berger have devised this show, and between them they perform, direct, and create the set, sound and projection designs (along with Zoe Scolgio for the latter). In doing so, they allow for the design elements to work together and form a deeply layered intimacy that draws the audience into these two tales and for Joseph to seamlessly flow between the two.