Metro Arts is thrilled to once again collaborate with Brisbane Festival, celebrating some of Australia’s most daring artistic voices acros performing and visual arts.
Metro Arts is staging four thought-provoking works as part of the festival that showcase varied Australian voices – from First Nations to living with dis/ability, queer to quirky, spanning cabaret, theatre, circus and dance, alongside a newly commissioned exhibition as part of this year’s stellar program.
This year’s performances shine the spotlight on a host of inclusive artists and accessible art, including
a world-premiere solo dance theatre piece by Minjunbal-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri and Ni-Vanuatu
multi-hyphenate Thomas E.S. Kelly.
Karul Projects’ Kuramanunya is a brand-new commissioned work that honours and plays homage to
First Nations’ lives lost during colonisation, a ceremony bridging physical and spiritual worlds
through storytelling and songlines.
“This work, this ceremony, has already been one of the most emotionally rich stories I have told.
Holding the space for my ancestors and offering them the ceremony they never received is one of the
most special moments in my career.” said Thomas E.S. Kelly.
In her solo show, Personal, writer and performer Jodee Mundy also explores the duality of existing in
two worlds through her intimate coda experience as the only hearing person in a deaf family, inviting
deaf and hearing audiences to challenge their perceptions.
Ripping into patriarchal perspectives and the battle for body sovereignty, ON HEAT by performance
artist Leah Shelton (Polytoxic) takes razor-sharp aim at sexual politics through absurdist lip-sync and
subversive entertainment with devastating effect.
And we finish the Festival with the best party piece ever: Party Ghost. This is the first time this
boutique cirque work has been presented in Queensland and it is the epitome of silly, clever and fun.
Melding circus, theatre, death and drag in a macabre production of high-level physical feats and
dismembered dark comedy, Party Ghost is spooky and kooky and utterly original.
Running throughout Brisbane Festival from 1 to 23 September 2023, Metro Arts will also present
Patterns for Future Living, an immersive installation of rhythmic colour, movement and sound inspired by the modernist works of Sonia Delaunay-Terk.
The exhibition and free creative workshops with artist Rae Haynes prompt a dynamic DIY ethos for
collective action and care to promote long-term environmental and social change.
Metro Arts is proud to be partnering with Brisbane Festival again and continue to champion
challenging, experiential and inclusive artists and art-making.
Tickets to the Metro Arts x Brisbane Festival program are available now on our website.
ON HEAT
By Leah Shelton
30 August – 2 September 2023
Personal
By Jodee Mundy Collaborations & Critical Stages Touring
6 – 9 September 2023
Kuramanunya
By Karul Projects featuring Thomas E.S. Kelly
13 – 16 September 2023
Party Ghost
By Double Take & Cluster Arts
20 – 23 September 2023
Patterns for Future Living
By Raye Haynes
1 – 23 September 2023
Media Contacts
COCOM PR | Tel: 61 7 3892 77 36 | E: PR@cocom.com.au
