{"id":83381,"date":"2026-08-30T12:45:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/83381\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T12:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:45:04","slug":"brisbane-festival-2024-whats-on-in-ebony-botts-debut-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/83381\/","title":{"rendered":"Brisbane Festival 2024: What\u2019s on in Ebony Bott\u2019s debut lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane Festival artistic director Ebony Bott describes the Olivier-Award nominated West End hit The Choir of Man as \u201cthe best night down the pub you\u2019re ever going to have \u2013 but with better singing\u2019\u2019. <\/p>\n

Poised to launch her inaugural festival, Bott said this feel-good, foot-stomping musical \u2013 it has a working onstage bar \u2013 is a celebration of male friendship and camaraderie and \u201cthe opposite of what we read about with toxic masculinity\u201d. She added: \u201cIt\u2019s a real (audience) favourite, and it\u2019s never been to Queensland.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Choir of Man enjoyed a five-year stint on London\u2019s West End and has played to sold-out houses around Australia, but its 2020 Brisbane season was cancelled because of the Covid pandemic. <\/p>\n

Bott has now made this high-energy compilation of hits by Queen, Sia, Paul Simon and Guns \u2019n Roses a centrepiece of her program, and its season in the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent \u2013 returning to Brisbane after a six-year hiatus \u2013 has already been extended. <\/p>\n

The festival boss, whose last role was as head of contemporary performance at the Sydney Opera\u00a0House, has envisaged Queensland\u2019s biggest cultural event as a broad church, embracing everything from sunrise yoga and early morning DJ sets to the\u00a0annual \u00adRiverfire<\/a> fireworks spectacular, a highly anticipated new play by leading dramatist Suzie Miller, jaw-dropping dance stunts from Los Angeles and concerts by Human Nature and Missy Higgins.<\/p>\n

\u201cAudiences don\u2019t respond to an art form, they respond to an experience,\u2019\u2019 Bott told The Australian, adding that it was \u201cabsolutely thrilling\u201d that Miller\u2019s new work, Strong is the New Pretty, about the long gestation and birth of the AFLW competition, would open the festival on September 4. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Bott visited rehearsals for the play in Sydney earlier this month \u2013 the production is a collaboration between Brisbane Festival, Sydney Theatre Company and Trish Wadley Productions \u2013 and said she was impressed with how the performers had mastered footy skills as well as their roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite extraordinary to see that many women in the room telling this story that needs to be told,\u201d she said. \u201cThis game that\u2019s been called Australia\u2019s game for so long, Aussie rules, was (previously) really only open to 50 per cent of the population.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n

Miller is the playwright behind the Olivier-Award winning global sensation Prima Facie, and Bott said the dramatist\u2019s latest work has \u201ca sense of humour that I think people will love, and Suzie just knows how to have us all on the edge of our seats\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

For an ex-Sydneysider who \u201chit the ground running\u201d when she took up her role last October, Bott seems cool and collected on the eve of her first rodeo as festival boss. She described Brisbane\u2019s annual cultural jamboree as \u201ca very fit festival\u201d that \u201cknows how to take over the city\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite cost-of-living pressures facing consumers, tickets to her three-week program were selling strongly, she said. On the other hand, cost-of-living increases were front of mind when she decided to make the program radically accessible. \u201cSeventy per cent of the program is free,\u201d she said, including a nightly laser, light and water sculpture show on the Brisbane River.<\/p>\n

The 2028 Olympic torch handover from Los Angeles to Brisbane has also influenced her festival ambitions. Representing a cultural bridge between the two cities, LA-based dance company Diavolo: Architecture in Motion <\/a>is bringing its celebrated show Escape \u2013 a fusion of dance, high-risk acrobatics and large moving objects \u2013 to Brisbane, and Bott said she \u201cloved the physical, athletic nature of their work and how that actually ties into the Olympics\u2019\u2019. <\/p>\n

The Brisbane-Gold Coast corridor is home to Australia\u2019s largest Pasifika population, a demographic Bott reflects with four New Zealand works, including the epic Maori play Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking, which spans 185 years of history. <\/p>\n

Family show Fijian Flying Circus is an exploration of tribal storytelling, stunts and dance, while another family-friendly attraction, QAGOMA exhibition Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of the Jim Henson Company, unpacks the creative vision behind beloved screen characters Kermit the Frog, Cookie Monster and Miss Piggy.<\/p>\n

Bott\u2019s festival also includes a \u201clive mixtape\u201d of blue chip Australian rock and soul stars with Missy Higgins<\/a>, Icehouse<\/a>, The Temper Trap<\/a>, The Cruel Sea<\/a> and Magic Dirt<\/a> taking to the stage at the Roma Street Parkland.<\/p>\n

The festival director, who grew up in Perth and built her career in producing roles at the Adelaide Festival Centre, Arts Centre Melbourne and Sydney Opera House, said she had felt widely welcomed in Brisbane and was working with an \u201cextraordinary\u201d festival team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe artistic community here are quite incredible at just getting behind an idea and running with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane Festival artistic director Ebony Bott describes the Olivier-Award nominated West End hit The Choir of Man 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