BRIEFS stars explain why their dragged up burlesque variety show is for everyone – not just queer people
BRIEFS, currently showing at HERE at Outernet in London, is a mix of drag, dance, theatre, circus, clowning and comedy. (hereldn.com)
BRIEFS, currently showing at HERE at Outernet in London, is a mix of drag, dance, theatre, circus, clowning and comedy. (hereldn.com)
BRIEFS, the latest show by queer Australian performance troupe Briefs Factory which is currently on stage in London, has a rather surprising origin story.
Briefs Factory has been putting on raucous, rip-roaring performances – blending drag, dance, burlesque, theatre, clowning and circus art – since 2008. What started as performances at warehouse parties soon became circuits at festivals, and now, international tours.
Briefs Factory has been coming to London since 2011, so you’ve probably heard of the troupe, or at least seen their posters dotted about before. Yet their latest amalgamation of performances, which is on at HERE at Outernet in London until 26 July, is born from one of the most traumatic experiences of the century: the Covid-19 lockdown.
It’s hard to see how a show featuring balloon swallowing, aerial silks spinning, heel clacking and, erm, a penis, could have been formed by Covid.
As the pandemic began to take hold in Australia, Briefs Factory co-founders Fez and Mark rented a house in Brisbane, gathered all their performers there, and began talking trauma.
“While we don’t have a formal therapy outlet, let us use our art as our way of speaking or processing this,” Fez recalls saying at the time. “Every act that you see is an open love letter, creative love letter to whatever the trauma was at the time.”
Mark channelled his “anger and frustration” into a “punky, hula hoop, thrashy, drinky, smashy” performance piece. Circus performer Dale learnt a bunch of new clowning tricks, as “he couldn’t do anything” else at the time. “He’s like ‘my inability to sit still is what I want to talk about’,” remembers Fez.
“There is a loose laundromat theme [and] the whole idea is that it’s actually about artists coming clean about what was burdening them at the time.”
So the new BRIEFS show in London sees a perilous set of events turned into an anarchic, joyous, wild set of performances that simply can’t be missed. We caught up with Fez and Mark to chat about why BRIEFS is a show for everyone, why UK audiences love it, and why queer performance deserves to be treated like all other art.
OK, for anyone who is unaware of BRIEFS, give me your elevator pitch for the London show.
Fez: It’s a party in a theatre in a nightclub in a circus tent in a hens night in a drag party and then a club wrapped up in glitter in a mirrorball. But also, I guess when we talk about theatre, it’s theatre for everyone. It may or may not look like something you’ve seen before but you’re definitely invited.
Mark: I think it’s an homage to the old variety [performance]. It’s an homage to circus, it’s burlesque, it’s comedy, it’s punk, it’s drag. I think it’s just such an eclectic mix of all the art forms really.
I saw it last night, and was surprised at the diversity in the audience: there were queer people of course, but also straight couples and people in their seventies.
Fez: We preach diversity, we preach visibility and we’ve really crafted that in our audiences. We want audiences to feel, like I said, like everyone’s invited. You came and took a photo with us at the end of the show – that’s not anything new. We’ve been doing that from the beginning and it doesn’t matter if there’s seven people or 70 people, we will photograph with everyone. Audiences really know that we’re not taking the p*ss. We demand to deliver excellence. It’s really important for us to have diverse audiences because that’s a real reflection of our broader community. I feel like it’s really important for the queer audience to sit amongst the straight audience and to be intergenerational. We definitely prefer for our audiences to experience a show next to someone that they sit next to on the tube.
That’s a lovely way of putting it. Sometimes I feel like queer art is delivered in a way that seems to exclude those from outside the community.
Mark: That’s the whole [Briefs Factory] movement. We don’t want to be like that. We want it more inclusive, to the point where every day is Pride.
Fez: We want everyone to feel like they are in a safe, stunning place… because theatre is meant to reflect society. Theatre is meant to hold a mirror up to society and that’s what we really champion.
You’re an Australian-born collective, but London is a second home as you’ve performed here so much. What about BRIEFS makes it the perfect show for a UK audience?
Mark: I think that there’s that Aussie arrikinism [here]. Our sense of humour in Australia is from the British. Here they resonate so clearly and they get all these little Aussie stupidities. We celebrate the idiot, you know?
Fez: Audiences here in London get it. Theatre in the form that we’re talking about has such a strong foundation here in London. Obviously, historically there’s a strong connection. The baseline of everyone’s understanding and appreciation of theatre here in the UK… I have to say it’s a lot higher. In Australia, it’s quite a privilege to be versed and have experience and contact with the history of theatre. But here, I feel like it’s a baseline part of your psyche.
I think audiences here have a real sharp sensibility when it comes to language and wordplay. Even though doing a land acknowledgement [at the beginning of the show – a formal acknowledgment of the Indigenous peoples who originally occupied the land] here in the UK is an interesting thing for me to navigate… last night in particular there were three older couples that came and just said, ‘Thanks for doing a land acknowledgment and acknowledging the history here…’
I think it’s really important that while there are histories that have had interactions with the Commonwealth, I think it’s really important that we appreciate and acknowledge the traditions and the history of this place which is magnificent. It is ridiculous. It is very draggy. It’s opulent and gold and shiny and plush and velvet. We call ourselves queens. This is terminology that’s based here.
You can unpack, deconstruct, and get really heavy around what we’re doing. But also, if you’ve just had a day where you are just exhausted and all you need is shiny things and escapism, then we can also play that role too.
How has the show evolved over the years? Are there any routines that have become a Briefs Factory staple?
Mark: Once we did get to that point of putting on productions in theatres and festivals, we had to come up with the group numbers. So our opening always traditionally would be a feather fan dance, a striptease, a mix of modern vintage music and aesthetics. But then you iterate… the powder puffs last night was the opening.
Fez: We’ve done a fan dance and Mark was like, ‘Oh, we need to try something new.’ The fans are really lush and extravagant but he’s like, ‘do we feel like we’re getting comfortable with our fans? What about we bring in that old school powder puff concept?’ And it’s really cute.
When we went into development in 2013, I presented a track that I wanted to do for my solo number and then Mark was like, ‘No that’s my track’ and then Dallas [Delaforce, original Briefs Factory performer] was like, ‘No no no that’s my track’ and then one of the other boys was like, ‘No, I love that track.’ So we made a number collectively between the four of us and that’s the number that opened the second half, the one on the treadmill. It’s really cool to bring that back.
And what about the flashes of nudity… have they always been a staple in the show?
Mark: I think that risque nudity [has] but then, for me, I’m never fully nude. But then there’s the space in the show for moments of complete nudity where it is subtle, it’s not so Magic Mike-y.
Fez: I think we try to be unpredictable when it comes to nudity. So many people are like, ‘Oh you get nude on stage all the time!’ I’m like, ‘I’ve never once been nude.’ You might notice my drag number was about changing one outfit to another! [People then say] ‘Oh my god, that’s right. You’ve never been nude.’ But they get the sense that they’ve seen me fleshy and naked. I’m too paranoid for that s**t! I just want a shiny costume, andI want some backup dancers.
Fez, on stage you spoke about the company’s struggle to access arts funding. I believe you said you’ve been told there isn’t enough ‘artistic merit’ to the show. Do you have a message about that, or why it’s important to support queer performance art right now?
Fez: I think that traditionally, queer theatre, circus, drag, burlesque are things that are less reputable in certain eyes. They’re things that are sometimes perceived [as though they] should live in a nightclub and don’t really have a place in theatre. I think that’s a challenge that I take on.
I really respect our audiences for coming out and I adore our audiences for coming and supporting us and the more they do that, then the more our funding bodies and the powers that be will understand that this is relevant theatre that has a place and that doesn’t compromise on the values of the work that they choose to support at the moment.
We don’t make it look like something else so that we can get the funding. We need them to know what it is and we need them to decide that it’s relevant and important and that it has a place in the landscape of creative industries. It’s really important that there’s a place for it to grow into and that it can be platformed alongside other contemporary forms of theatre.
BRIEFS is at HERE at Outernet in London until 26 July. Tickets available now.
This interview has been condensed for length and clarity.
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
