With all the talk of crisis in Australian theatre circles, you’d think there’d be nothing left for hungry Sydney theatregoers to be excited about. Never fear, there’s always something on the fringes worth seeking out.
The Flying Nun performance program, run by Brand X at East Sydney Community and Arts Centre, is one of those things worth seeking. It’s now in its 10th season, with the latest aptly named ‘Supply and Demand’. It’s designed to supply artists with space for experimentation and demands something risky, where other spaces might seek out safety and bums on seats.
In practical terms, this means that each artist who applies receives $2600 and one week in the Brand X venue to work on a performance project. At the end of their week, artists are given a two-night performance run and the majority of box office sales.
In this season particularly, the artists are already working performance artists, and the work they’re developing is something they might not have been able to stage anywhere else. You, the audience, then become the final part of the project, giving live feedback on something new, something rebellious.
The season runs from July to November and features physical theatre, cabaret, drag, breaking, clowning and much more. With affordably priced tickets, it’s well worth risking a weekend night on.
I’ve dipped my toes into the first two performances of the season, so you can have a taste of what’s to come.
The Flying Nun – quick links
A space for experimental performance
Brazilian performance artist Keila Terencio de Paula snagged the first slot of the current season, with a work of physical theatre entitled Feijão (the Portuguese word for bean).
At the beginning of the performance, she tells us that she spent her week in the venue calling her parents in Brazil every day. She would talk to them about their legacy, knowledge and labour working on their farm.
Keila is an experienced artist, and her practice is driven by curiosity, physical theatre and visual arts. In her performance piece, she experiments with simple props, in this case a large pile of shredded paper, to create a changeable world on stage. With the help of audience members, the rows became rows of crops, beans to harvest, piles of dirt and letters from colonisers.
She is accompanied by musician Marina da Silva, who plays a mix of Brazilian instruments including a berimbau, and even sings along with the audience at times.
Terencio de Paula’s style of storytelling is gentle, intercut with recordings of her parents, and she spends her hour pondering the question: how can we become better ancestors? It’s a work that encourages you to consider your own legacy. What world are you creating? What knowledge will you pass on? They’re heavy questions, and they are asked with a combination of joy and sadness.
In the final moments of the performance, Keila leads us outside towards the heartbeat of banging surdos (Brazilian bass drums) and raucous singing. Nervously, we dance and do our best to sing along. Later, someone important-looking in the audience tries to cut off the song. They can’t. This performance can’t be contained inside a theatre, and so you’re forced to bring it with you into the cold Sydney night. It’s a shining example of why spaces for experimental performance are needed.
Spotlighting Pasifika stories
Two weeks later, I’m back for 8 Ways to Survive the Corporate Circus, which is described as a double bill of two new 30-minute solo works by Samoan poet/orator Fale Tumanu and Tongan actor Unaloto Funaki about surviving corporate insanity. Yet the performance, presented by Satiu Studios in partnership with Brand X, becomes something very different, more of a collection of skits by each performer.
Tumanu’s poetry is a standout. Moodily lit with a single spotlight, the readings are full of rhythmic frustration. Funaki is also an engaging performer, and shines brightest when he’s switching between himself and his corporate persona in times of crisis.
While the performance is hilarious and engaging at times, it struggles to form a cohesive whole. It starts to show us some of Tumanu and Funaki’s experiences, but doesn’t quite dig deep enough to become something unique when compared to the many other works focusing on the struggle of erasing yourself at work.
Despite that, it’s exciting to watch two performers with radically different styles working together to create something new and experiment with their performance practice.
Coming up next at The Flying Nun
Next up in the season is Fish / Boy, an almost sold-out work of clowning by Will Bartolo and Rae Colqhoun-Fairweather. They’re the masterminds behind Masterpiece, a very silly clown work about hanging some art that played to rave reviews at the 2024 Sydney Fringe. If you liked anything by Garry Starr, or you loved Mr Bean as a kid, they’re latest work is likely to be right up your alley.
Essential Workers, the team behind such hits as Lacuna, Never Closer and Collapsible, will also present a ‘performance lecture’ about brutalism. Yes, the architectural style now has a performance work in which ‘he’ has an identity crisis. If you’ve ever wondered what stories buildings could tell, well, here’s a whole architectural style telling some.
Later on, we’ve got W(hole) Again by Siobhan Gibbs, aka Gogo Bumhole, who’s recently relocated from Brisbane to Sydney and performs in clubs, theatres and anywhere else that will have her. Her solo work Sewer Rat Girl was nominated for Best Comedy at Sydney Fringe 2022, and this latest work is all about finding yourself up your own ass, but don’t worry, it’s sillier than you think.
Brendan Maclean, the crown prince of Sydney cabaret, has the next slot in October, performing his first original compositions in seven years in a his cabaret Deep. Funny. Piano. Gay. Pretty self-explanatory really, and a chance to see the performer up close and personal after winning an AACTA, performing opposite Hugo Weaving in How to Make Gravy, and getting his music video House of Air banned from YouTube.
Break the 5th Wall follows, a dance work built from the lived experiences of Western Sydney breaking crew Flowtality. This new work was developed as part of Brand X’s Live Arts residency in 2025, and it’s now ready to be performed as part of The Flying Nun program. The crew are multiple national champions, have performed at Sydney Opera House, and mentor emerging dancers across Western Sydney. This is a rare opportunity to learn about breaking by watching the training-to-battle journey of the experts.
Capping off the season is experimental theatre work Anticipated Collapse, written and performed by another Brand X alumni Harriet Gillies. Gillies’ experimental work The Power of the Holy Spirit was presented as part of the 2019 The Flying Nun season, and won Best Experimental Award at Melbourne Fringe Festival in the same year. She currently tours Queer Powerpoint, which has become a cult classic for gays around Australia. Her newest work is set inside a therapy office that jumps timelines. For lovers and haters of things like Backrooms or Couples Therapy, this’ll be something well worth catching.
With something for almost everyone, and certainly for the freaks and weirdos, this 10th season is set to be The Flying Nun’s most exciting yet. Each show only runs for two nights, so get your skates on for something special, experimental, and risky in a world that’s increasingly lacking in excitement or artistry. I’ll see you in the stalls.
