HEAT

An IN THE RAW Season presented by Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre

Directed by Ebony Webb

Sweat drips. Salty skin. Hot, honeyed kisses. The sweetness stings your eyes.

The first truly HOT day of the year, too hot to move, to think. The hum of the cicadas drones on endlessly, maddeningly. The sun beats down on an Australian town. Your town. Any town.

Zen Zen Zo’s 2025 IN THE RAW season brings the heat with an exploration of the effects of Australia’s rising temperatures on the mind, body, memory and environment. With a striking visual score supported by movement, poetry and projection, HEAT embodies an amber-hued dreamscape, where bodies melt and minds wander, and sinks into the burning heart of the Australian summer, looking back with fond nostalgia and gazing forward with growing horror.

Led by Zen Zen Zo’s Associate Director, Ebony Webb, the Australian landscapes‘ natural cycles of destruction, regeneration and renewal play out across the bodies and space, in a feverish rite of summer madness. At its molten core, HEAT is an ode to human endurance, a love letter to Australia’s temperamental spirit and a warning flare to those who would ignore it.

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For over a decade Zen Zen Zo has finished each year with an IN THE RAW show as a ritual conclusion to the year that has been. Join us on Saturday 29 November at sunset to celebrate the end of 2025!

HEAT is part of Zen Zen Zo’s annual IN THE RAW Season, in which the company returns to its experimental roots to create new work in non-traditional theatre spaces. Past IN THE RAW shows (including Blushing, Rebirth, The Tempest, Zeitgeist, Dracula, Sub-Con Warrior 1 & Those with Lucifer) have sold out, so early booking is advised.

CREATIVE TEAM:

Zen Zen Zo Company Members: Indiah Morris, Maxi Mossman, Liam Linane, Bryson McGuire, Shanne O’Leary, Wayne Jennings

Zen Zen Zo Interns: Abby Bowyer, Blaise Barham, Sarah Barham, Jacinta Maxwell, Madeleine O’Connor, Beth Incognito, Rori Eglinton, Prema Portway, Ally Armitage-Cosgrove, Jessica Thomas, Niala Lewis

Producer Kari Scott-Matthew

Lighting Steven May

Dramaturgy Niala Lewis

DISCLAIMERS:

Age Recommendation: 16+

Audience Seating: The performance of HEAT will be outdoors with limited seating. If you would like to bring your own cushion or picnic blanket please feel free to do so.

Content: HEAT contains references to environmental hardship, alcoholism and death. This work contains partial nudity, haze and dust.

Equity tickets available for First Nations and Trans attendees. Please contact us at info.zenzenzo@gmail.com.

Contact the host of HEAT