'This book examines sexuality, gender and race in Australia’s vibrant independent theatre and performance culture. It analyses selected feminist and queer performances that interrogate the cultural construction of sexuality and gender, challenge the normative trends of mainstream Australian society and culture and open up spaces for alternative representations of gender identity and sexual expression. Offering the first full-length study on sexuality and gender in Australian theatre since 2005, this book reveals a resurgence of feminist themes in independent performance and explores the intersection of feminist and queer politics. Ranging across drag, burlesque, cabaret, theatre and performance art, the book provides an accessible and engaging account of some of the most innovative, entertaining and politically subversive Australian theatrical works from the past decade.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'In this way, the book brings together theory and practice in an intersectional and situated manner, providing the reader with all the tools they need to comprehend the complexity of each case study and simultaneously demonstrating through the discussion how art and performance synthesises knowledge and enables embodied understandings. Sisters Grimm critically engage with cinematic texts to 'challenge certain filmic inscriptions of history and their basis in heteronormative, patriarchal, colonial and racist ideologies' (116), responding with what Stuart Hall (1980) describes as oppositional reception or oppositional reading which occurs when the person watching the film interprets it in a different way than what the author of the film intended (which French also describes as 'queering the text' (118)). Hot Brown Honey's tagline, 'Fighting the power never tasted so sweet' (2015), is the title of the concluding chapter, and sums up one of the central themes of the book: that queer feminist performance can function simultaneously as a political platform and an engaging form of entertainment. Combining collaborative and solo vignettes, Hot Brown Honey weaves together a variety of performance styles such as an aerial ribbon dance that deals with the theme of domestic violence, a burlesque 'strip' which metaphorically performs the removal of colonisation from the body of the performer and an exhilarating beatbox performance.' (Publication abstract)
'This book analyses gender, sexuality, and race in Australian theatre and performance 2005–2015, offering detailed readings of case studies attentive to performance, critical, cultural, political, historical, generic/formal, and spectatorial contexts; and a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of gender, sexuality, and race in performance, both in Australia and internationally.' (Publication abstract)
'In this way, the book brings together theory and practice in an intersectional and situated manner, providing the reader with all the tools they need to comprehend the complexity of each case study and simultaneously demonstrating through the discussion how art and performance synthesises knowledge and enables embodied understandings. Sisters Grimm critically engage with cinematic texts to 'challenge certain filmic inscriptions of history and their basis in heteronormative, patriarchal, colonial and racist ideologies' (116), responding with what Stuart Hall (1980) describes as oppositional reception or oppositional reading which occurs when the person watching the film interprets it in a different way than what the author of the film intended (which French also describes as 'queering the text' (118)). Hot Brown Honey's tagline, 'Fighting the power never tasted so sweet' (2015), is the title of the concluding chapter, and sums up one of the central themes of the book: that queer feminist performance can function simultaneously as a political platform and an engaging form of entertainment. Combining collaborative and solo vignettes, Hot Brown Honey weaves together a variety of performance styles such as an aerial ribbon dance that deals with the theme of domestic violence, a burlesque 'strip' which metaphorically performs the removal of colonisation from the body of the performer and an exhilarating beatbox performance.' (Publication abstract)
'This book analyses gender, sexuality, and race in Australian theatre and performance 2005–2015, offering detailed readings of case studies attentive to performance, critical, cultural, political, historical, generic/formal, and spectatorial contexts; and a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of gender, sexuality, and race in performance, both in Australia and internationally.' (Publication abstract)
