If you’re looking for the most exciting artistic endeavours this Melbourne Fringe season, the Darebin Arts Speakeasy program is your guiding light.
Partnering with emerging and established artists, the multi-award-winning Darebin Arts Speakeasy program will host several independent performances as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Coming off the back of COVID, the program will be sharing a full season of shows, including Leah Shelton’s BATSH*T, Jonathan Homsey’s TRUTHCLUB and Aseel Tayah & Jason Tamiru’s ARDNA: OUR LAND, many of which have been brewing behind the scenes.
With a focus on the world we find ourselves in today, the program continues to present a thrilling calendar of performances for Darebin’s diverse community as part of its nine-year legacy.
BATSH*T by Leah Shelton | 5 – 15 October at Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre
After a sold-out season at the 2022 Brisbane Festival, Leah Shelton’s BATSH*T is finally touching down in Melbourne as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
‘Psycho-siren’ Leah Shelton has come off the back of two acclaimed solo shows. Her first solo show TERROR AUSTRALIS received numerous awards and toured Australia and France, while her explosive sophomore show, B*TCH ON HEAT, toured to major festivals in Australia and the Soho Theatre London. Aside from her solo work, Shelton has played on and off West End in London and has graced the cabaret stages of Club Briefs, Little Death Club and Jonny Woo’s infamous UnRoyal Variety Show, to name a few. She is also the co-director of the artist collective Polytoxic, which performs internationally.
Her newest offering, BATSH*T, is an elegy for Shelton’s own grandmother Gwen, in a theatrical, deeply funny and intimate story of female madness. Drawing on personal stories and memories, Shelton explores the fantasies, myths and fears that keep us compliant in a daring and evocative feminist depiction of the systems that let us down. BATSH*T is helmed by the creative team behind Shelton’s two other hit solo productions and is directed by the Olivier award-winning performance artist Ursula Martinez.
TRUTHCLUB by Jonathan Homsey & the untitled likeminded dancers of colour | 8 – 10 October at Darebin Arts Centre
In the not-so-distant future, the dancefloor of TRUTHCLUB presents a safe haven for truth and the collective experience in an homage to street and cultural dance. In the creative universe of Jonathan Homsey and the untitled likeminded dancers of colour, there is only one place to decipher society and get the truth.
Jonathan Homsey, winner of the 2022 Green Room Award for Dance: Best Production for I Am Maggie, is back in Melbourne for the debut performance of the dance collective, untitled likeminded dancers of colours. Homsey is a choreographer and curator based on Wurundjeri Country, and for the past decade he has been a community leader, working from the positionality of a queer person of colour to contribute to interdisciplinary practice in galleries and public spaces.
As part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, TRUTHCLUB is set in a futuristic nightclub and presents an exploration of how a dancefloor can become a site for cathartic celebration. In speaking to collective experiences, Homsey looks towards the world of dance, and pays homage to street and cultural dance.
ARDNA: OUR LAND by Aseel Tayah & Jason Tamiru | 21 – 23 October at Darebin Arts Centre, Grevillea Room
The Palestinian artist Aseel Tayah brings an original collaboration with esteemed Yorta Yorta theatre maker Jason Tamiru to the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
This exciting duo works under the name Bukjeh, which in Arabic refers to a package of belongings that refugees travel with. Through their extensive work, the group endeavours to centre and share the stories of refugee community members. The creative team represents a diverse multicultural background, with voices from Palestine, Egypt, South Sudan and Indigenous Australia. As part of their work they also tour and spread their stories to schools in Regional Victoria through the help of Regional Arts Victoria.
ARDNA: OUR LAND was created with children seven years and older in mind. The duo explores our connection to the physical land around us through a collaboration of Aboriginal and Middle Eastern dance, songs and storytelling. A powerful exploration of our relationship to land, focussing on the different ways we tell stories, and listen to each other.
For more information and to book tickets to every show visit arts.darebin.vic.gov.au
This article was made in partnership with City of Darebin.
