May is approaching – and that means it’s almost Anywhere Festival time for Brisbane.
Throughout May, Brisbanites can experience cabaret, circus, comedy, dance, immersive, magic, music, musical theatre, participatory, performance art, theatre and workshops in nooks and crannies anywhere but a theatre.
Like a lot of places/business throughout Brisbane recently, Anywhere was impacted by the floods.
“Two weeks ago as we were cleaning out the Anywhere Festival storage space in West End and the brand new office and hub space at the old Jo Jo's Restaurant in South Brisbane I was wondering whether the programme was going to be revealed at all,” Artistic Director Paul Osuch says.
“Both spaces were converted into temporary mud brown swimmable pools and most of our gear and furniture went under. Many people I knew were in a worse situation as well as our performers and venue hosts. It felt like 2011 when we started the festival, but worse.
“Since then we've cleaned up, gotten used to sitting on the floor a bit more and with all our wonderful local independent artists and venues have put on the finishing touches so that we could launch the 2022 Brisbane Anywhere Festival to provide a celebration of Brisbane extraordinary performance makers and places.”
Anywhere Festival will return to delight audiences for a twelfth year, and there’s plenty on offer for lovers of every kind of live performance.
Perhaps you’re into immersive/interactive theatre – try ‘EDU101’, encouraging students to step outside their comfort zone. In the world of physical theatre there’s ‘The Wind Of Wall Street’, as dancers move among you and challenge your perspective of capitalism and its command of society.
‘Dall’ Italia All’ Australia’ is a comprehensive film showcasing the panoramic views witnessed by Italian, Balkan, Greek, Arabic and Jewish migrants standing on the deck of the Regina d’Italia during their journey.
‘Necklace’ sees Isabel Stankiewicz inviting audiences to a personal performance piece – the next step in widening the conversation about disability perceptions.
“Now more than ever it feels it is important for us to connect through performance and storytelling and to connect in our everyday spaces to help us build new memories that have been traumatised from the events of the last couple of weeks and years,” Paul continues.
“This year, local performance-makers have imagined and reimagined shows in nooks and crannies we know you’ll love to explore: warehouses, World War II airplane testing centres, tool libraries and your home among many more.
“There are some regulars we know you love as well as a lot of new spaces to explore.”
Anywhere Festival Brisbane runs from 5-22 May.
