Queen Street Gym is playing host to a different kind of crowd this week, as PIAF and UK theatre-makers Common Wealth take over their ring and punching bags with the in-your-face boxing performance No Guts, No Heart, No Glory. Five young Muslim women have decided for various reasons to take up boxing, and the show explores the conflicts and glories that arise from this unorthodox choice. Written by London-based writer Aisha Zia, developed with five 16–23 year-old Muslim women and the former UK national champion Ambreen Sadiq, No Guts, No Heart, No Glory is a powerful look at the point where culture, religion, society and … Continue reading REVIEW: No Guts, No Heart, No Glory | Common Wealth | PIAF 2016

This won’t be your typical review, because pvi collective‘s Blackmarket isn’t your typical show. It’s not a show at all, it’s a happening. Set in the streets of Subiaco, participants are invited to play a game of survival. Don’t worry, it’s not The Hunger Games, no one is at risk of being bumped off by their fellow players, and though pvi might be watching you, tracking your progress, and possibly filming you, you’re not going to be subjected to a million people baying for your blood or anyone else’s. Blackmarket is an immersive, intimate, highly self-directed street theatre experience. I’ll walk … Continue reading REVIEW: Blackmarket | pvi collective | PIAF 2016

Sin. Sin. Sin. Hamlet is full of sin. So say The Tiger Lillies and Theatre Republique in their macabre spectacle, The Tiger Lillies Perform Hamlet. It’s opened this week in the recently spruced-up Regal Theatre and is sure to be a favourite of PIAF 2016’s program. This topsy-turvy adaptation of Shakespeare’s Danish royal bloodbath by director/set designer Martin Tulinius, Tiger Lillies musician Martyn Jacques and Theatre Republique founder Hans Christian Gimbel is a treat for the senses. There are deathly painted faces, black and white clown costumes by Astrid Lynge Ottosen, bizarre instruments, a tilting tilt wall, and performers suspended by ropes. Most of Shakespeare’s dialogue (with the exception … Continue reading REVIEW: The Tiger Lillies Perform Hamlet | PIAF 2016

  Perth International Arts Festival‘s opening weekend will be hard to top, with Refuse the Hour setting the precedent. The bar is now set extremely high, but if this production is any indication of things to come, we’re in for a spectacular season of performance at PIAF. As with other works from Kentridge, it’s heavily multi-media, with video and animation (by Kentridge and Catherine Meyburgh) that both accompanies the action and has its own internal narrative. It’s also opera. It’s also dance. And it’s also science, history and politics. There is so much at work in this piece, so many elements coming together, so … Continue reading REVIEW: Refuse the Hour | PIAF 2016