The Suburban Review commissioned HOUSING SIMULATOR 2023, a piece of digital lit the editors described as: ‘a hilarious interactive work with a keen sense of tragedy.’ (Thanks, eds!) It has just popped out into the world at the start of 2024:
‘Apply for your nightmare rental or save for the distant dream of a deposit — just don’t have a pet, or an insistence on functional plumbing.’
HOUSING SIM 2023 built on work begun with the support of The Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists Fellowships, an initiative of Brisbane City Council, which also enabled me to spend a week in Katoomba writing/reading/walking (down and, worse, UP some Very Giant Stairs), and — most wonderfully — to engage Felicity Plunkett’s expert editing (and mentoring) eyes on some new work. ♡
Last November, we were finally back in(!) a(!) theatre(!) for a sold-out season of Apocalipstick! at Metro Arts. It seems like both a million years and one minute since that time, but Polytoxic have not rested on their lockdown laurels. They’re back with a brand new show for Brisbane Festival: DEMOLITION. Here’s my (brief) two cents on Polytoxic’s not-to-be-missed new show:
DEMOLITION has all the good stuff you want — feats of strength, mid-air hula-hooping, synchronised intersectionality, a very ascendable set and a microphone in an Ice Break bottle — but is at its best when its high-octane acts turn in on themselves and embrace the uncanny.
This is a very different show from APOCALIPSTICK! (Metro Arts 2020); DEMOLITION is focused on ‘getting shit done — by the tonne’. The Polytoxic crew is unafraid to let its audience sit with — even help lift — its heavier moments. While there’s cheekiness and fun in DEMOLITION, its strongest scenes let the audience do the work, blurring the juxtaposition of feminist send-up with the actual injustice underneath.
You’ll find yourself laughing and whooping and then, suddenly, examining what made you laugh and — just as quickly — weeping or raging. The performers make a lot of noise in this show — after all, it’s circus! — but I’ve never heard the scream, the cry, the yawp deployed with such power and nuance.
Co-directors Lisa Fa’alafi (pictured; photo by Joel Devereux) and Leah Shelton kick arse, and Ghenoa Gela, Lilikoi Kaos and Mayu Muto were stand-outs. All DEMOLITION lacks is a little more levity at its denouement; after the thoughtful, affecting rollercoaster of its various feats, the audience needs to be lifted back up just a little more — called to affirmative action, maybe — before we toddle back out into the foyer. (However, once there, you can and will buy 👊-themed stubbie coolers, pins and tees.)
DEMOLITION runs from 4–11 September at Brisbane Powerhouse. 💥💥💥
And, as for the link round-up, here’s what happened while I avoided Zoom during the first half of this year:
I’m running a Qld Poetry workshop on the possibilities of choose-your-own-adventure poems in Twine. It’s called WE CONTAIN MULTITUDES and will include re-drafting exercises and a tiny bit of coding. It runs online on 12 and again on 23 September and will be low-key, fun and breakout-room free.
In November, Bec and I will be dusting off our evening wear to perform BACHELORETTE: A SONG CYCLE at RuckusFest (just in time to debrief on Brooke’s upcoming queer season of The Bachelorette!).
Zenobia Frost 