Power. Privilege. Problems. Thirteen Queens delve into conversations about gender and power, with humour and heart. Holding court across three rooms at the same time, The Regina Monologues invites Melbourne to a unique evening, where everyone experiences a different show. Who will you choose to meet? A series of monologues based on royal women from varying times and places, these are not your Disney Princesses. They’re more complicated and less […]
VAS HOLOS Claire Bridge, Jia Jia Chen, Nina Sanadze and Katie Stackhouse explore concepts of wholeness (holos) and the vessel (vas) through rupture and embodiment, translated across sculpture, video and installation. Whether the vessel be of a human/more-than-human body, the earth, body politic or of culture, each contemplates our complex mesh of interrelations as containers of emergent, transformative change. This project is supported by the City of Melbourne arts grants. […]
How can we wrap our heads around the inevitability of planetary and civilisational collapse? What can the history of experimental electronic music and the fate of an extinct alien species teach us about living with chaos and destruction? In this experimental lecture presented by Liquid Architecture and MESS, Catherine Ryan brings together performative musicology and electronic music synthesis to address a pressing feeling that structures our age: the existential terror […]
A fisherman out on the open seas, surrounded by an ocean of conflicting emotions. To conform to the norms of masculine society, or not? One colossal fissure will send ripples across the past, present and imagined, forcing him to consider his own truth. "Fisher" is written & directed by James Robertson and presented by the Plain English Theatre Company, who recently closed a successful run of "Have a Good Night, […]
Split Focus brings Attempts on Her Life by Martin Crimp to The Stables at Meat Market in a dynamic, site-specific adventure reverberating with a late 20th century aesthetic from 18 – 27 August.
A raucous and unlikely romantic drama… twenty feet up.
A warts-and-all work by queer British playwright, Charlie Josephine, examines the DNA of a fractured father/daughter relationship fuelled by chronic depression, addiction, and social shame.
If you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, does it make any more sense to judge a book by its author?
Gavin Roach presents the critically acclaimed SMASH HIT Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh. Pig & Runt speak in their own language, play by their own rules, and create a world for themselves. Born at the same time on the same day in the same hospital, Pig and Runt have been inseparable ever since. They speak in their own language, play by their own rules, and create a world for themselves […]
Art auction in support of refugees. Leading artists have donated works to highlight the need to treat refugees and asylum seekers with dignity and compassion.
Platform Exhibitions & Open Seen is excited to announce “Continuum” – a collaborative art & music event with an all queer and gender diverse line up. Aimed to celebrate intersectional identities and elements of queer culture, Open Seen will bring their DJs, performances and local fashion brands to help curate the art exhibition of your hot gay summer! Together, Platform Exhibitions and Open Seen endeavours to provide a platform for […]
On a blurry Dublin sports field, James struggles to remember what is real and what is imaginary, after meeting a guy he wishes he hadn’t. A lonely university student from rural Ireland, James deflects the events of a dark night, with stories of his astrology obsessed friend, his performatively woke flatmate, and a new overpriced mindfulness app he’s just discovered. Jonathon Shilling performs in this energetic one-person show confronting gay […]
Gavin Roach & Ryan Henry present the World premiere of CULT. You signed on the dotted line, you paid the up-front joining fee and your complimentary microfibre sweat towel has definitely been used by someone else. Congratulations, you’re now on the path to being your best self! The ripe sweat of men in spaghetti-strap singlets have blurred your senses. That’s not a heart attack, it’s your heart rate perfectly synced […]
On the Death Strip of the Berlin Wall in 1962, from gunshot to final breath, an adolescent Peter Fechter hears the lives of family, friends, and strangers unfolding in the city around him – dozens of voices converging in the moment of his death and illuminating his decision to risk it all for love.
Based on real world events, the Berlin Wall looms large as Carlo Hengstler brings this heart-breaking story of family ties, oppression, liberty, and cloistered sexuality, to the stage with a wry humour, difficult truths and unexpected joy.
A first for both festivals, kin highlights the cross cultural connections and kinship between Victoria’s Koorie and Tasmania’s Palawa peoples by supporting the collaboration of eight First Nations artists from both nations in developing works, building relationships and exchanging knowledge.
Jas Shalimar's introspective practice anchors on the everyday moments that inevitably make up a life. For this exhibition, Shalimar has created a body of work that brings together ink drawings and a library of suspended objects that sit somewhere between a self portrait and musings on life and death. The thread that runs through her works is a quiet, devotive attention to conventional subject matter that she transforms into unconventional […]
Heartbreaking Exhibition "The Letters" Sheds Light on Iran Revolution Tragedy and Advocates for Freedom. North Melbourne,15 to 17 August – The Stables at Meat Market is set to host a profoundly moving exhibition titled "The Letters," which unveils the anguish and sorrow experienced by families and friends of victims who lost their lives during the recent Iran revolution. This emotionally charged showcase delves into the pain, unspoken words, and cherished […]
Why's it gotta be so complicated? Frankie is desperate to be understood, accepted, loved. But the LGBTQ alphabet soup has got Michael’s head spinning. Why's it gotta be so complicated? Why can't they understand? Why can't things go back to the way they always were? Jahla Black (They/Them/He) and Asher Griffith-Jones (He/Him) bring this uplifting Australian premiere about two siblings living in a rural community to the stage. One Of […]
A trans woman and a neo-Nazi get STUCK in an elevator… Kikki Temple stars alongside Gabriel Cali in this new work that will see two people forced to inhabit space with someone they never thought they’d ever have to. Face-to-face with someone they fear, that they loathe, that they even lust for – confronted with these feelings without being able to escape. What conversations are they forced to have? What […]
Inspired by the incredible true story Alan is on the hunt to find the last greater mouse-eared bat living in Britain, but a tender romance with Josh, the charming young runaway he meets in an abandoned railway tunnel, begins to divert him from his mission. As their relationship develops, these two damaged men might fix one another. If only a little. Alec Gilbert and Ozzy Breen-Carr bring this Australian premiere […]
Our combined efforts explore mythic forms, ruined space, creaturely bodies and earthly constructs. Non-human revenge narratives catalyze to dismantle entrenched hierarchies that mold the world. Post-humanist tendencies emerge. Eroded metal plates pulse with vibrations of regional terrain they map. Methods & outcomes intercept invisible signals, raw intuition drives padded shapes and electro signal-blocking fabric turns to stone. Our drones hover within the crust of the earth.
Multi-billion-dollar conglomerates wield the power over life and death. Their employees work themselves until they collapse from exhaustion. Food is unaffordable. Yet supermarket giants face off in an economic stand-off, completely unaware of the far-reaching consequences of their private battle. All the while, the children of these two giants run wild until one fateful evening they meet. Thus blossoms the tale, of Juliet and her Romeo. Rohan Dimsey directs an […]