FAQT - Festival of Australian Queer Theatre

Choose your tickets

1. Thu 22 August, 8.00pm - A Body at Work

   A Body at Work Serial nudist, Frankie van Kan (AKA Frankie Valentine—Stripped Queer, Club Briefs, Baby Got Back, Seen & Heard Cabaret) achieves the improbable task of exposing more of herself than ever before, in this deeply intimate piece of confessional theatre. Dubbed “…A dynamite piece of theatre” by ArtsHub, A Body at Work, directed by theatre Alumni Maude Davey, is the tale of a queer woman’s sixteen years—and counting, in the sex industry. Beginning in a strip club, with insightfully refreshing antics of strip club culture and the perceived power dynamics between workers and clients, Frankie unpacks her own whorephobia and the unravelling of boundaries. As she regales you with stories of the body as a commodity and navigating queerness in this honest, humorous and heartfelt journey Frankie asks the question—will they love me at my Madonna when they’ve relished me at my whore?  A Body at Work | Duration: 70 mins | Commences: 8.00 PM | Venue: The Minerva Space - Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute - 117-119 Sturt Street Recommended audience - 18+. Full nudity, sexually explicit content and language.

   1. 

      Thursday 22 August - A Body at Work - General Admission

      $30.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Thursday 22 August - A Body at Work - Concession

      $15.00

      − 0 Quantity +

2. Fri 23 August, 6.00pm - FAQT Conference - Hosted by Richard Watts OAM

   The FAQT Conference - Hosted by Richard Watts OAM | Guest performance by Six Inches Uncut | The FAQT Conference brings together some of the leading thinkers and creators in contemporary Australian queer theatre to talk about their practice and the state of queer theatre making in Australia today.  Featuring guests artists from around the country, some attending via zoom from International tours, the FAQT Conference invites you to consider and discuss what queer theatre is now and what it can be in the future.  Hosted by Richard Watts OAM with a brief key note from Dr Robert Reid. Guest performance from Six Inches Uncut. Guests and speakers include • Ash Flanders - Multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter • Jack Beeby - Artist, writer and theatre maker • Kate Gaul - Theatre and opera director, creative producer, festival director and designer • Jennifer Vuletic - Voice artist, master of accents and character voices • Beng Oh - Director and theatre maker • Rob Reid - Playwright, director, game designer and academic Performance - The Torso by 6 Inches Uncut - The Torso is a ten-minute-long smut poem, written in stylistic homage to Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, that tells the cautionary tale of a late night flirtation that quickly escalates to obscene psycho-sexual terror at the conversational mercy of a faceless Grindr chatbot. The FAQT Conference | Venue: LanceTV Studio - 36 Camp Street | Commences: 6:00 PM | Duration: 2.5 Hours | Audience recommendation: MA

   1. 

      Friday 23 August - FAQT Conference - General Admission

      $50.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Friday 23 August - FAQT Conference - Concession

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      $25.00

      − 0 Quantity +

3. Fri 23 August, 9.00pm - A Body at Work

   A Body at Work Serial nudist, Frankie van Kan (AKA Frankie Valentine—Stripped Queer, Club Briefs, Baby Got Back, Seen & Heard Cabaret) achieves the improbable task of exposing more of herself than ever before, in this deeply intimate piece of confessional theatre. Dubbed “…A dynamite piece of theatre” by ArtsHub, A Body at Work, directed by theatre Alumni Maude Davey, is the tale of a queer woman’s sixteen years—and counting, in the sex industry. Beginning in a strip club, with insightfully refreshing antics of strip club culture and the perceived power dynamics between workers and clients, Frankie unpacks her own whorephobia and the unravelling of boundaries. As she regales you with stories of the body as a commodity and navigating queerness in this honest, humorous and heartfelt journey Frankie asks the question—will they love me at my Madonna when they’ve relished me at my whore?  A Body at Work | Duration: 70 mins | Commences: 8.00 PM | Venue: The Minerva Space - Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute - 117-119 Sturt Street Recommended audience - 18+. Full nudity, sexually explicit content and language.

   1. 

      Thursday 23 August - A Body at Work - General Admission

      $30.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Thursday 23 August - A Body at Work - Concession

      $15.00

      − 0 Quantity +

4. Sat 24 August, 10.00am - Short Showings

   Two of Ballarat’s leading artists present showings of their current work. Ariel Songs is a 30-minute choral theatre work, based on The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. Music features prominently in the play, and in this immersive, devised performance, the songs of Ariel (an airy spirit) are sung by a group of actors and take on a life of their own, in new settings by composer Richard Chew. Ariel Songs takes the idea of the masque in the original play and uses the conventions of radio to guide the audience in their experience of Shakespeare's mysterious island and the ‘rich and strange’ characters that inhabit it. Additionally, come along for a magical, musical romp through the world of faerie tales and nursery rhymes with the award winning Em Chandler | Ariel Songs - Dr. Rick Chew presents a musical performance inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest. | Queer Faerie Tales - Em Chandler presents a selection of her Queer Faerie Tales. Commences: 10:00am | Duration: 60 Minutes | Venue: Black Box Theatre at Federation University - Entry via gated entrance on Lydiard Street Ballarat | Please ensure that children are accompanied by adults.

   1. 

      Saturday 24 August - Short Showings - Ariel Songs & Queer Faerie Tales - General Admission

      $15.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Saturday 24 August - Short Showings - Ariel Songs & Queer Faerie Tales - Concession

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      $7.00

      − 0 Quantity +

5. Sat 24 August, 11.00am - Maude Davey - Master Class

   Maude Davey presents a writing and practice workshop exploring writing what we otherwise wouldn’t have written, in saying what we otherwise wouldn’t have said. This Master Class will experiment and explore working with: Disrupting patterns; interrupting flows; and then corrupting what seems like a whole thing, turning it onto the wrong path. Participants will work on the floor and at table. | Participants should bring writing implements (computer is fine), and comfortable clothes/shoes to move about in. (You don’t have to move if you don’t want to, watching is always an option). Duration: 3 Hours | Commences: 11am | Venue: Humffray Room - Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute - 117-119 Sturt St

   1. 

      Saturday 24 August - Master Class - Dis/inter/corr/e/ruption - Maude Davey - General Admission

      $50.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Saturday 24 August - Master Class - Dis/inter/corr/e/ruption - Maude Davey - Concession

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      $25.00

      − 0 Quantity +

6. Sat 24 August, 2.30pm - Moira Finucaine - Master Class

   Presented by Moira Finucane, this three hour masterclass workshop, explores creating from what is most urgent, most visceral and most powerful for the artist right now. It’s for any kind of creator, from writer to cabaret artist to composers and musicians. | The workshop opens up a hot tool kit in the artists; part generation of new work, part finding and blessing our inner beast, part seeing others and ourselves anew and answering some practical and philosophical burning questions, as we strive to make art in a world that teeters on the edge of the abyss. Duration: 3 Hours | Commences: 2:30 PM | Venue: Humffray Room - Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute - 117 -119 Sturt Street.

   1. 

      Saturday 24 August - The Art of Urgency - Moira Finucane Master Class - General Admission

      $50.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Saturday 24 August - The Art of Urgency - Moira Finucane Master Class - Concession

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      $25.00

      − 0 Quantity +

7. Sat 24 August, 6.00pm - Polite Mammals

   Polite Mammals, presented by The Wholesome Hour, is a totally wild, neo-vaudevillian variety show the whole family can enjoy. Celebrating animals of all kinds: real, imaginary, sparkly, stinky, polite and rude! Say goodbye to daggy songs, dated jokes and moth eaten puppets - this is kid’s entertainment at its coolest. Commences: 6:00 PM | Duration: 55 Mins | Venue: Black Box Theatre - Federation University - Entry via Lydiard Street entrance. | Please ensure that children are accompanied by adults

   1. 

      Saturday 24 August - Polite Mammals - General Admission

      $20.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Saturday 24 August - Polite Mammals - Concession

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      $10.00

      − 0 Quantity +

8. Sat 24 August, 7.30pm - Numa & Karl

   Numa and Karl: Extraordinary Man That He Was, written by Em Chandler - A staged Reading | Numa and Karl: Extraordinary Man that He Was' is a biographical play about 19th-century queer activist and theorist of sexuality, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. In 1867 he protested at a gathering of 500 German jurists against the criminalisation of (what we now call) homosexuality. The play explores this incredible human and his passion, his relationship with his family and loved ones, and the impact his work had on community then and today.  Shortlisted for the Midusmma Festival Queer Playwriting Award of the Year 2023. Duration: 70 mins | Commences: 7:30pm | Venue: Humffray Room - Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute - 117 -119 Sturt Street.

   1. 

      Saturday 24 August - Numa and Karl: Extraordinary Man That He Was - General Admission

      $30.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Saturday 24 August - Numa and Karl: Extraordinary Man That He Was - Concession

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      $15.00

      − 0 Quantity +

9. Sat 24 August, 9.30pm - Perpetual Horror

   An intimate experience spawned from body-horror films, a bodiless cover of Playboy Magazine, and Kerith Manderson-Galvin’s identity in flux – Perpetual Horror follows an uncontainable queer body through desire, disgust, disturbance, and oblivion. Commences: 9:30pm | Duration: 75 Mins | Venue: LaNCE TV Studio and Rat Lab - 36 Camp Street | Audience: 18+ only

   1. 

      Saturday 24 August - Perpetual Horror - General Admission

      This show is only suitable for ages 18 and above.

      This show is only suitable for ages 18 and above.

      $30.00

      − 0 Quantity +
   2. 

      Saturday 24 August - Perpetual Horror - Concession

      This show is only suitable for ages 18 and above. Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      This show is only suitable for ages 18 and above. Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

      $15.00

      − 0 Quantity +

10. Sun 25 August, 12.00pm - Chasing Dick: A Love Story

    Dax Carney-Hanrahan's staged reading of a new full length script - Commissioned by Festival of Australian Queer Theatre | Will you let yourself go? How far are you willing to go? Who are you willing to let go? | In a regional city, far from the CBD, A conservative accountant father and his good-looking bisexual son will soon find out they have been chasing the same thing. The love of Dick. | When Dick, a larger-than-life transwoman, moved into town, the already strained relationship between father and son took an even more dramatic turn. As they get to have more of Dick they start to question everything they think they know about themselves, each other and the world. | Chasing Dick tackles significant themes such as the intergenerational gap in views on sexuality, gender identity, and expression, along with the universal search for connection and understanding within families. Through its heartfelt dialogue and poignant interactions, the play offers a profound commentary on the evolving nature of love and identity in contemporary society. Commences: 12:00pm | Duration: 90 minutes | Venue: The Reading Room - Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute - 117-119 Sturt Street

    1. 

       Sunday 25 August - Chasing Dick: A Love Story - General Admission

       $30.00

       − 0 Quantity +
    2. 

       Sunday 25 August - Chasing Dick: A Love Story - Concession

       Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

       Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

       $15.00

       − 0 Quantity +

11. Sun 25 August, 2.30pm - Play Readings & Reflections

    Australian Theatre / Queer Canon - Hosted by John Kachoyan Until comparatively recently, live performance work and story telling on the Australian stage was still rare and scandalous.  That doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.  From 1800s male impersonator Effie Fellows to modern classics of the Australian stage like Love by Patricia Cornelius, queer theatre has of course always been here.  Theatre Director and historian John Kachoyan, together with local actors present and discuss readings of key scenes from important queer Australian plays including Michael Gow’s Away and Peter Kenna’s A Hard God. Commences: 2:30 PM | Duration: 90 mins | Venue: Reading Room - Ballaarat Mechanic's Institute - 117-119 Sturt Street, Ballarat Central

    1. 

       Sunday 25 August - Play Readings and Reflections - General Admission

       $30.00

       − 0 Quantity +
    2. 

       Sunday 25 August - Play Readings and Reflections - Concession

       Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

       Student, Health Care Card, Pension Card concession accepted. Evidence of concession must be made available on entry. Complimentary Companion Card tickets available (email event organiser).

       $15.00

       − 0 Quantity +