Review: Threadbare

Threadbare Featuring: Fipe Preuss, Elnaz Sheshgelani and Phillipa Russell Choreographer: Kathleen Gonzales Producer: Natasha Jynel Threadbare is a three-part multidisciplinary show that celebrates the diversity of Australian identity through dance, poetry and visual art. The show is presented in languages including English, Spanish, Tongan, Arabic and Auslan. Threadbare invites audiences to shift their perspectives and open their eyes with ideas that challenge convention in modern Australian society. It brings together artists from diverse backgrounds to explore the commonalities of human experience. Each artist brings a personal reflection and identity to the show. In Threadbare, there is poetry featuring Dr Quinn Eades exploring feminist, queer and trans series of the body. His poem The Urge to Speak encourages gender queer people to find a voice. What does it mean to be in contemporary Australia? How do our languages, culture, heritage and traditions connect us? As a society, the most difficult thing is to look at ourselves and to ask ourselves what work is still needed to foster healing an inclusion. Threadbare explores the conflict between the “otherness” and belonging in contemporary Australia. The show also features Phillipa Russell, the only deaf actress in the show. Phillipa’s solo is performed entirely in Auslan and alludes to the theme of arriving into an unknown country. She performs of a curious bystander who arrives in a land inhabited by Indigenous peoples – a young white woman who arrives on the scene completely not knowing what’s going on. The show begins with the steady sound of a heartbeat, which leaves the audience wondering what will happen next. The atmosphere felt strangely chaotic, as the entire room is engulfed in darkness, and two women slowly appear dressed in white robes with their faces concealed, chanting an interpretation of Welcome to Country. Written by Caroline Tung