SHOW ON

In a new non-festival extravaganza, Performance Space will fill up Carriageworks with two weeks of thrilling Australian shows with a focus on audience participation and the intersection of art, life and popular culture through a range of experimental performance mediums. Coming up to their 30th anniversary as one of the most unique and intriguing theatre companies in Sydney, Performance Space co-director, Bec Dean says Show On is energised, engaging and incredibly exciting “I hate to say festival because Sydney is such a festival-obsessed city,” she explains. “But I guess it is and the way we’ve programmed the work is around that idea of festival and fun.”

The season kicks off with Applespiel who have inspired and shocked audiences by asking them to take control at a range of events such as this year’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas. “They are a young company from Sydney and they seeded this work with us, presenting it for the first time with a public audience and that’s really exciting for us,” says Dean.

“In The Democratic Set the audience are very involved in creating the work. In Thrashing Without Looking they are almost hostage in the work. So without spoiling it for everyone, it’s a very small audience of 12 and half are kind of passive and half are active,” she says. The experience, like the other works on show, will be incredibly interactive: going clubbing, having a romance and enjoying a candlelit dinner all in the space of half an hour, with champagne and live music.

RRAMP: the Collector, the Archivist & the Electrocrat follows the interdisciplinary trend, telling gothic stories through a range of music styles about a woman who lives alone and collects her memories in jars and explores them through song. Lastly Pin Drop is a documentary-style thriller using sound art and movement to explore the most private of experiences, fear.

Jul 25-Aug 4, Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh, prices vary, 8571 9111, performancespace.com.au