
The production is wisely divided into three discrete acts – each work given time to breathe and be digested by audiences. The importance of this device becomes more pronounced over the course of the production.

In its second Brisbane Festival run, Soap does not fail to live up to the hype with its unique blend of circus, cabaret and opera filling the Courier-Mail Piazza stage.

Melchior, a suicidal young son whose family runs Klutz Books, crawls out the window each night and sits on the roof, planning his demise. One night he meets Hendrick, a neighbour, whose flyaway badminton equipment has brought her to this suicidal young man.

Performed entirely on treadmills, the show hurtles through an exploration of gender identity and performance, created on a base of champagne, sweat and tears.

Andy Bull and his band mesmerised the crowd who were straining to get closer, awaiting what they knew he would surely deliver.

Urthboy enters the Telstra Spiegeltent and asks his audience to close the gap, come in tight, promising not to spit on the audience from a distance. He tells us there will be some “hootin’, hollerin’ and hecklin” asking us to not be afraid to heckle.