“We’re going to use that quote, thanks for reminding me about that,” chuckles Fez Faanana, founding member and Creative Director of Briefs. It’s a sunny Thursday afternoon and the thespian turned vaudeville is still recovering from jet-lag despite a stellar opening night at the Athenaeum and luggage misfortune.
“We’re all kind of jet-lagged. We landed early Tuesday morning, then set the show up and Wednesday we got our first preview out of the way, which was awesome. We’ve got a good hard manager,” jokes the performer. “We also had a stupid amount of luggage that got lost in transit,” adds Faanana, jovial despite the setback. “We still made the show happen and it still rocked. We were running around swapping costumes, swapping makeup; [we] had sewing machines out, had [hot] glue guns out, [and] gaffer tape going all the way up until the last minute the doors opened. But, y’know, no one [audiences] knew what was going on,” explains the man, illustrating a comical image of seven painted-men dashing about in their underwear, frantically tacking costumes into place until stage call.
“It’s all about that show business: make it ‘til you make it or fake it ‘til you break it.”
Briefs was founded in 2008, born from late night speakeasies in Brisbane’s clubs. From there it was loved and nurtured by Fez and his brother, Natano, and his partner at the time. It grew from a three-member party to a seven-member ensemble that’s morphed over the years and received many awards, including the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010 Award for Best Circus Act. Currently Briefs features Faanana as ‘Ringmaster’ Shivannah, Thomas Worzell, golden bird Captain Kidd, Evil Hate Monkey, newbies Lachy Shelley and Louis Biggs and fashion powerhouse, Dallas Dellaforce.
“The costumes in the are really sleek. One of our performers [Dallas] is a fashion designer and she’s the queen of avant-garde drag and she’s done some amazing costumes for the show,” including suggesting budgie smugglers, ostrich feather decadence, and a crystal-laden homage to home, Australia.
“That entire costume kind of represents the show in a really perfect way. It’s outlandish, it’s boisterous, but it is a little bit political as well. It features the Union Jack but also features the Indigenous Flag prominently,” explains Faanana, who stresses that costume represents the renegade spirit the cast have, a spunk that harbours the Australian spirit of questioning propriety. “Being a show that travels heavily internationally – we’ve been to Paris, Berlin and London, [even] crossing over into music festivals such as Glastonbury – we wear both of those flags very proudly. One thing we’re very conscious of when we perform is the state of Indigenous culture and its politics.”
In fact, Briefs is very concerned with political and social issues, and not in a proselytising way. The Second Coming is raunchy, subversive and introspective. Multiple times throughout the show they comically silhouette women with hyperbolic breasts or figures that differ from the acceptable female form portrayed in media. This subtle incisiveness extends to notions of masculinity too, where Dita Von Teese’s renowned martini burlesque routine is recreated, challenging our preconception that burlesque worships female figures (it actually admires all figures). The Second Coming is also a celebration of diversity.
“The thing about our cast and our show and how we work together – we don’t just focus on one thing. It doesn’t focus on one body type. It doesn’t focus on one skin colour or one subculture,” speaks Fez passionately. “It has elements of hip hop, it has elements of punk. It’s a very renegade [spirited] show so I feel like that’s what people [can] relate to. There’s someone in the group [audiences] can latch onto or have a personal connection to. As cliché as it sounds, at the end of the day that is our formula: There’s all these different ingredients of performers and hopefully people identity with one of them.”
This need for inclusiveness extends to beyond the audience, into the public discourse about the queer community, especially around the fight for transgender rights, identities and recognition. It’s unsurprising, as The Second Coming subverts hetero-cis sexuality and gender and conservative politics in non-alienating ways. Whether it’s satire that blurs gender and sex, lip-syncing dramatically in drag or dancing around with ostrich feather fans, every act is a subtle defiance to normality.
“The show deals with lots of political issues in a really fun and entertaining way. It’s not too heavy-handed about it, [rather] it’s a celebration that humans can be beautiful idiots and wonderful freaks. It’s an adult’s playground and audience members [often] gain a sense of freedom when they after seeing the show. They get to be naughty, they get to be naughty with us and that naughtiness is celebrated,” teases Fez.
BY AVRILLE BYLOK-COLLARD
