RISING Unveils 2025 Program In Melbourne

RISING, Melbourne’s winter festival of new art, music and performance, has announced its 2025 program featuring; 65 events, 327 artists, 15 new commissions, 9 world premieres, 5 Australian and 10 Victorian, returning to showcase the city in all its moon-lit glory over two epic weekends from Wednesday 4th to Sunday 15th June. 

Over 12 nights, RISING transforms the CBD into a pulsating playground of music, theatre and dance and public performances. Take a swing at mini golf reimagined as art, lose yourself in a storm of kinetic lasers, groove to Punjabi beats at Federation Square or compete in the ultimate challenge of doing literally nothing.

Continuing RISING’s legacy of unlocking hidden corners of the city, the expansive 2025 program will spill into laneways, arcades, underground basements and grand theatres showcasing an unmissable lineup of world-class international and local artists, in a city-wide celebration of Naarm, now. ​

RISING is about breaking conventions - bringing wild, intimate, and unexpected creativity into the heart of Melbourne.” said RISING Co-Artistic Directors Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek. We are a festival of art music and performance that is proudly challenging and uncompromisingly inclusive. This year, audiences are invited to navigate a storm of lasers in the prismatic fantasy of the Capitol Theatre, swim through a composition of tactile sound in the City Baths, join in an audio-visual experiment deep under the ground of our town square or compete in the defiant act of doing nothing.”

Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks says, “This winter RISING festival is set to dazzle and surprise us, transforming Melbourne’s iconic spaces with creativity – from a mini-golf inspired exhibition in the Flinders Street Station Ballroom to laser beams in the Capitol Theatre and a massive participatory music event at Melbourne Town Hall that will get the city singing and dancing. There’s also a huge offering of music, theatre, dance, showcasing our incredible local talent alongside a big line-up of international acts. There are plenty of ways to get involved and plenty of reasons to visit Melbourne this winter.”

EXPLORE THE CITY

Step off Swanston Street and into The Capitol where light and space will blur into something almost beyond perception. In his Melbourne debut, Japanese artist Shohei Fujimoto, formerly of Tokyo-based international artist collective TeamLAB, presents intangible #form, RISING’s largest installation to date that is free to explore every night of the festival. 

Known for his masterful use of light as a medium, Fujimoto will transform the Capitol into a living sculpture of kinetic light, mapping the theatre’s architecture with precision, creating an immersive field of red beams that respond to your movement and perception. Step into darkness, lose yourself in light, and emerge via the firescape, directly into the energy of Night Trade.

For the second-time running, RISING’s festival-within-a-festival - Day Tripper - returns over the King’s Birthday weekend featuring one ticket with access to eight hours of music performance and art spanning across Melbourne Town Hall, Max Watt’s and Night Trade. 

As part of the sprawling Daytripper lineup, Brooklyn shoegazers DIIV will unleash their signature blend of feedback-drenched melodies while Mississippi’s Annie and the Caldwells inject disco-tinged gospel into the mix. Atlanta’s BKTHERULA warps reality with her jagged, psychedelic flow, and Arnhem Land’s Ripple Effect serves up saltwater rock with all-women firepower. Electronic music pioneers Mount Kimbie will be on the decks for deep, atmospheric beats, while Paul St Hilaire resurrects his Tikiman-era digital dancehall experiments. Expect the raw fury of Bad Vacation’s New York hardcore, and Sydney’s Antenna, whose garage-punk is lifted by the soulful rasp of Royal Headache’s Shogun. Keep your eyes peeled for a dance performance from The Butterfly who Flew into the Rave, these rascals have a habit of storming in and pounding the floorboards into submission. 

Just across the road at Max Watt’s, Chapter Music is throwing its ‘End of an Era’ party in honor of its 33rd anniversary, one last night of indie spirit from one of Australia’s most revered independent labels. The lineup is pure Chapter: eclectic, fearless, and brimming with underground charm. Expect sets from Npcede, Ryan Davis, LUGs, Tenniscoats, Andras & Oscar, Sidney Phillips, and Gregor, with a special farewell performance from co-label head and local music icon Guy Blackman. It’s the end of an era, but there’s no room for mourning -only celebration. 

Up the road, Fed Square is set to ignite with BLOCKBUSTER, a massive free, day-to-night celebration of South Asian culture, bringing together Pakistani truck art, music and mouthwatering street food. Presented in partnership with Fed Square and SalamFest, the party continues with an unmissable lineup of Pakistani R&B, high-octane Punjabi rap, hypnotic Sufi melodies, and deep 808 bass straight from Lahore.

After an awe-inspiring debut in last year's festival, participatory music event Communitas by Melbourne’s electronic duo Shouse returns to RISING, now with expanded space to conjure and dance at Melbourne Town Hall. 

Matha, Moorina Bonini’s new public artwork to be splashed across the facade of Hamer Hall, is a powerful expression of cultural regeneration, drawing from the deep, ancestral connection to Yorta Yorta lands and the Dhungala (Murray) River. This work shares how knowledge is held within Country and embodied through cultural practices often passed down, renewed, and regenerated over time.  Visions of trees, waterways and the creation of cultural belongings are intertwined with song by Moorina’s family, focusing on new ways of making ceremony and helping language thrive in the present. 

Converge in QV Square on the King’s Birthday holiday for the internationally-acclaimed Space Out Competition by South Korean artist Woopsyang. In a world obsessed with hustle and constant achievement, Space-Out offers a refreshingly radical challenge: do nothing. Created by Woopsyang in 2014 during a battle with ad agency burnout, the experience has since gone viral, bringing the art of stillness to the forefront of global work culture critiques. Now, for the first time in Naarm, the challenge is set to test the outer limits of the zone-out. The rules are simple: sit for 90 minutes and maintain a state of calm - no sleeping, no laughing, no tech distractions. It’s a test of focus and control as participants aim to achieve the purest form of stillness, making it the perfect antidote to the constant pressures of modern life. 

Announced earlier in February, Swingers— The Art of Mini Golf, sees the Flinders Street Station Ballroom turned into a smashable, playable art exhibition featuring nine mini golf holes and any number of untold obstacles. Each hole is created by a female artist, including acclaimed filmmaker, writer, and artist Miranda July (USA), Kaylene Whiskey (AU) teeing up a vibrant fusion of pop culture and Anangu traditions and Tokyo’s Saeborg (JAP) unleashing a world of latex creatures with cartoonish menace. Today, RISING announces the final three artists in the Swingers line-up including experimental Australian artist duo Soda Jerk, prolific Hobart-based photographer and artist Pat Brassington and Atlanta’s genre-blending rapper BKTHERULA, known for her ethereal melodies, bold energy, and futuristic trap sound. Expect more twists around every nook, cranny and bend.

Night Trade is back, pulsing through the Capitol Arcade and spilling its neon-lit energy down Howey Place and beyond. Whether you're after a killer cocktail at the microbars, a feast at local eateries, or a microphone-fueled karaoke session with Mummy’s Plastic, back for a festival encore, this is the place to be. Look out for some lovable latex cartoon menace, courtesy of Saeborg, while the party starters from Lake Victoria’s Nyege Nyege collective festival are in charge of the aux chord bringing the vanguard of African electronic music. This is just the beginning with more surprises to be revealed in the lead up to the festival. Whether you're dropping in or riding the full wave of Night Trade’s chaos, the alleys are open for play.

The Melbourne Art Trams project takes to the streets once again, this time with a poignant and culturally rich tribute to First Peoples women. Selected by a curatorium of Victorian First Peoples curators, the 2025 edition showcases a powerful collection of artworks drawn from private collections of the artists and state and regional galleries. Convened by Senior Curator RISING Kimberley Moulton (Yorta Yorta), the curatorium includes highly experienced and community connected curators. Curators include Belinda Briggs (Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Wurundjeri and Ngiyampaa), Curator Indigenous Shepparton Art Museum, Gail Harradine (Wotjobaluk, Djubagalk, Jadawadjali ), Curatorial Manager Koorie Heritage Trust, Caine Muir (Yorta Yorta, Wati Wati and Ngarrindjeri), Curator First Peoples Collections Museums Victoria, and Stacie Piper (Wurundjeri, Dja Dja Wurrung and Ngurai Illum-Wurrung), Curator & Collections Victorian Indigenous Research Centre, State Library Victoria.

For the legacy tram for this year, the festival honours Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung artist Beruk (William Barak)’s  1897 work Corroborree (Women in possum skin cloaks). This a significant painting was returned to Victoria after being purchased from Sotheby's Auction house in 2022 by Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Corporation with support of the Victorian State Government. The remaining five trams' artists will be announced soon. 

In Saturate, local sound artist Sara Retallick will transform Melbourne City Baths into a resonant chamber where sound and water merge in a ritual of deep listening. During RISING 2021, a handful of lone bathers experienced Flow State by Retallick and fellow artist Amanda Roff. Now Rettallick returns, sharing the communal auditory soak experience in the CBDs most historic public bathhouse. 

Arrive at night, get your swimmers on and get submerged, surrendering to an immersive auditory experience only accessible underwater. Specialised loudspeakers transmit a generative composition that shifts through multi-zoned frequencies, inviting bathers to swim through layers of sound. 

Diagrammatica by Jason Maling is an immersive public art experience that transforms the void beneath Federation Square into a space where time and sound bend, and systems of meaning shift and evolve. Inspired by the visual language of physics diagrams, astral photography, and graphic musical scores, this ever-evolving improvisation blurs the line between logic and abstraction. In collaboration with sound artists Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey and filmmaker Rhian Hinkley, Maling creates an interactive underground space, submerged in sound art, where small groups can craft living diagrams while onlookers watch a livestream for free in Fed Square’s Atrium. 

Stretching RISING’s festival footprint further than ever before, out in the Yarra Valley, in the rolling hills of Wurundjeri country, the TarraWarra Museum of Art is hosting its Biennial. This year it’s curated by Yorta Yorta woman and RISING Senior Curator Kimberley Moulton and it is titled We Are Eagles. The name is inspired by the First Peoples political event in 1938 called The Day Of Mourning and a speech Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls gave where he called for equal rights and an end to colonial oppression, stating, “we do not want chickenfeed … we are not chickens; we are eagles.” His sentiments are echoed through the exhibition with works by 23 artists, each centring on regenerative practice and relational transcultural connections to land, object and memory. 

MUSIC

From major exclusives, intimate debuts and boundary-pushing collaborations, RISING’s music program brings together global innovators, pop icons, and underground legends for an unforgettable sonic journey across Naarm/Melbourne.

In an Australian exclusive, British cool girl, Suki Waterhouse is jetting to RISING for her debut Australian performances, playing two very special shows in Melbourne. After the runway shows, the hits and the heartbreaks, she’s back leaning even harder into the ephemeral punch of her music. Over two nights, she’ll light the mirror balls and showcase her new album Memoirs of a Sparklemuffin with her full band, starting with an intimate performance at the Athenaeum followed by an extravaganza at PICA, RISING’s new music hub, the next night.  

For one night only, the queen of yearning, Beth Gibbons (Portishead), graces RISING with LIVES OUTGROWN her hauntingly beautiful, long-awaited solo debut. In the grandeur of Hamer Hall, her voice will unfurl like smoke, weaving a journey through darkness and dappled light. Gibbons doesn’t rush. It’s been over 20 years since she last released anything close to a solo album, her Rustin Man collaboration with Talk Talk’s Paul Webb. Since then, she’s lent her unmistakable, aching voice to just two tracks: one with Kendrick Lamar, one with MF Doom. And for the past decade, she’s been meticulously crafting LIVES OUTGROWN, a stunning, spellbinding work of sonic alchemy.

Japanese Breakfast make their long-awaited return to our shores, infusing their starry-eyed sound with a gothic edge. Between adapting her best-selling memoir, Crying in H Mart, for the screen and travelling to South Korea to write, Michelle Zauner found time to craft For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) - her fourth full-length as Japanese Breakfast due to be released on 21 March. Now, she’s set to bring her cinematic indie sound to the grand stage at PICA, marking her first Naarm show in eight years.

Brooklyn’s indie-rap icons Black Star are making their long-awaited debut in Naarm/Melbourne. After Yasiin Bey (FKA Mos Def) delivered a spellbinding performance of The Ecstatic at RISING last year, he’s back - and this time, he’s bringing Talib Kweli with him. The visionary duo that redefined conscious rap in 1998 will take the stage together at PICA for one night only, delivering razor-sharp lyricism, soulful beats, and an unshakable revolutionary spirit. From their roots in New York’s open-mic poetry nights to their seismic impact on hip-hop, Black Star has always been more than music, it’s a movement.

From Aotearoa, the golden-voiced Marlon Williams debuts his sublime Māori-language album live at RISING for two nights at Melbourne Town Hall, with The Yarra Benders and Kapa Haka group. The Māori proverb “he waka eke noa” reminds us that we're all in this boat together, but for Williams, that boat once felt adrift, leaving him to navigate solitude and self-reflection. This reckoning with proverbial wisdom inspired Aua Atu Rā, the lilting, evocative newly released single from Te Whare Tīwekaweka, an album five years in the making, set to be released in April. With the guidance of fellow Māori artist and Lyttelton local KOMMI, and the ethereal harmonies of the He Waka Kōtuia singers, Williams found a new course. The result is a breathtaking fusion of country, bluegrass, and pop woven with traditional Māori rhythms.

UK duo Mount Kimbie, Dominic Maker and Kai Campos, return to Australia for the first time in eleven years, taking the Forum Melbourne stage for RISING following the release of their latest record, The Sunset Violent. Emerging from the late-2000s dubstep scene with breakthrough tracks like "William", crafted from field recordings, they quickly set themselves apart by blending raw textures with melody. Over the years, they've mastered balancing hooks with abstraction across ambient and garage, as well as collaborations with Travis Scott and James Blake. With The Sunset Violent, they revisit post-punk electronica, dusting off their guitars to deliver a restless, razor-sharp sound that dares listeners to lean in.

In 2025 RISING will revive the legendary Little Bands scene, reigniting the raw energy of late ’70s and early ’80s Melbourne when North Fitzroy pulsed with fearless synth-punk experimentation by groups like Primitive Calculators and Whirlywirld. Spontaneous 15-minute projects blurred the line between audience and performer, paving the way for giants such as Hunters and Collectors, Dead Can Dance, and Boom Crash Opera. Now, local tastemakers including Chapter Music, Liquid Architecture, and Cease + Desist  curate a multi-generational lineup spanning punk, indie, electronic, experimental, ambient, noise, and jazz across three iconic Melbourne venues, inviting you to witness history repeat itself unpredictably.

California’s Jessica Pratt will cast a spell over the acoustically honed confines of  Melbourne Recital Centre for two intimate shows, drawing audiences into the ethereal depths of her folk sound. Performing selections from her new album Here in the Pitch, Pratt expands her sonic palette with lush instrumental textures - timpani, glockenspiel, and baritone saxophone weaving seamlessly through her impressionistic lyrics.

On your next stop after Daytripper, are clearing the Town Hall floor for First Frequency. Join RONA., DJ PGZ, and Kalaji for a meeting of music and storylines from across the continent, driven by the spirit of community and connection. From the West, Nyikina artist Kalaji opens space with a visceral, cinematic live show that merges cutting-edge production with deep cultural roots. From the Centre, RONA., Kaytetye artist, producer, and DJ, delivers a set infused with sounds and rhythms from her home in the desert. Down East, Gunai/Kurnai and Yorta Yorta artist, DJ and producer, DJ PGZ invites you to the Black underground as he soundtracks the Black urban, the Black industrial, and Black catharsis. His early-rave inspired set will oscillate between deep grooves to sit in, bone rattling bass, climbing tension and ecstatic release.

South East London's Pete & Bas, the unstoppable grime duo, are bringing their electrifying energy to Max Watt’s stage. British rappers and Tiktok icons Peter Bowditch and Basil Bellgrave, both in their 70s, debuted in January 2018 with the critically acclaimed track “Shut Ya Mouth” and haven’t looked back since. Performing in Australia for the first time, Pete & Bas have earned respect from a who’s who of the British hip-hop scene. Co-signed by artists such as Jaykae, Mist, Dizzee Rascal, Giggs, Headie One, and Dave, this dynamic duo is redefining what it means to make music - showing that it’s never too late to break through.

Ned Collette, with his smouldering songwriting style reminiscent of Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen, teams up with Leah Senior and Michael Beach, three artists whose haunting, late-night melodies could melt through the thickest of walls. Together, they’ve dreamed up the New Rampant Optimism Roadshow, a raw, shoot-from-the-hip revue that brings unexpected levity to the often intense, dark world of folk. Joined by Naarm legends like Mick Turner of Dirty Three on guitar and Chris Abrahams of The Necks on piano, plus a special appearance by US underground rock icon Thalia Zedek, this one-night-only event at the Athenaeum promises a rollicking, unrepeatable experience. 

Soccer Mommy, Nashville’s lovelorn grunge-pop queen, is set to bring her captivating energy to the Forum stage. Sophie Allison, the voice behind Soccer Mommy, is a five-foot-four engine of emotion, poised to flood the venue with raw feeling beneath the night-blue ceiling. Known for balancing plainspoken intensity with unforgettable hooks since her early home recordings, Allison’s latest album Evergreen dives deeper into acoustic intimacy and sweeping, pastoral soundscapes. Each track is richly melodic, yet always ready to deliver a sullen rock sucker-punch. Don’t miss this chance to experience Soccer Mommy’s unique blend of vulnerability and power. 

THEATRE DANCE & PERFORMANCE

RISING’s theatre, dance, and performance program brings bold reimaginings, genre-defying spectacles, and deeply personal works to the stage: challenging, electrifying, and immersive.

INTERNATIONAL

Argentine choreographer Marina Otero smashes the boundaries between art and life in Kill Me, a raw performance that unravels the artist with fearless honesty and theatrical mayhem. Premiering in Melbourne at The Sumner, Melbourne Theatre Company, mental health, mortality, and artistic survival all collide in a spectacle that swings between grand dance sequences and moments of aching vulnerability. Part of her ongoing Remember to Live series - a lifelong commitment to documenting her own existence through performance - Kill Me is both deeply personal and wildly unpredictable.

Shakespeare’s timeless tales get a playful, kitchen-table makeover in Complete Works: Tabletop Shakespeare, where six performers condense most of his plays using nothing but wit, imagination, and household objects.  A vase becomes a prince, a jar transforms into Juliet, and a bottle of Dettol stands in for the nurse. Covering 36 of Shakespeare’s works over nine days and nights of the festival, a new story unfolds, proving that the heart of Shakespeare’s work isn’t in grand sets or elaborate costumes but in the sheer power of storytelling. Created by the acclaimed experimental theatre company Forced Entertainment and presented at the University of Melbourne Arts and Culture’s Guild Theatre, this inventive retelling strips Shakespeare down as you’ve never seen it before.

Check into Heartbreak Hotel, a hilariously offbeat exploration of heartbreak by acclaimed Aotearoa New Zealand company EBKM. Dressed in lavender tassels and backed by the ultimate breakup soundtrack, think Elvis, Celine, and the greats, Karin McCracken guides us through the messy, absurd, and all-too-relatable aftermath of a serious split. Alongside the virtuosic Simon Leary, who morphs into every ex, Karin dives into famous novels, scientific studies, Berlin nightclubs, and even the depths of her own cells in an attempt to clinically dissect heartache. From the award-winning creative duo Eleanor Bishop and McCracken, this Edinburgh Fringe hit premiering at Arts Centre Melbourne is a love letter to the lovesick and a balm for the bruised. 

Direct from the West End - BLKDOG - London-born Botis Seva’s Olivier Award-winning hip hop masterpiece arrives in Melbourne for the first time at Arts Centre Melbourne, ready to take audiences on a wild and transformative ride. With a pounding score by longtime collaborator Torben Lars, a squadron of seven dancers, cloaked in hooded caps, immerse the audience in a hallucinatory journey marked by violence and an unsettling, dead-eyed fascination.

In another Shakespearean remake, catch the dazzling reimagining of Hamlet, as a neurodiverse cast brings fresh energy to Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy, turning “to be or not to be?” into a life-affirming question. Featuring eight performers with Down Syndrome, this vibrant adaptation from Peruvian theatre company Teatro La Plaza joyously deconstructs the prince’s existential struggle. Presented at the University of Melbourne’s Union Theatre, see the performers bring their own frustrations, desires, and perspectives to the stage, delivering Hamlet’s iconic soliloquy all at once in a rap, adding a contemporary twist to the age-old words. Melding live performance with film, Hamlet turns the question of madness back on itself, inviting the audience to reflect on how society defines normality.

Moving across town to a new RISING venue Buxton Contemporary, get ready to lose yourself in the pleasure and pain of a 3-day rave, condensed into one electrifying hour. The Butterfly Who Flew into the Rave is a dance work created by New Zealand-Aotearoa’s club legends Oli Mathiesen, Lucy Lynch, and Sharvon Mortimer taking you deep into the underground, as the trio brings club styles to life in a relentless, candy-fueled spectacle.

As the bass drops and the lights flicker, you’ll be transported into an LED-lit world where dance and euphoria blur together in one transcendent experience. This isn’t just a dance performance; it's a high-energy celebration of music, movement, and the transcendent power of collective joy.

AUSTRALIAN

The cult-favourite rock musical, known for its boundary-pushing storytelling and glam-punk attitude, Hedwig and The Angry Inch, will make its return in a bold new Australian production at RISING, bringing the raw, glitter-soaked energy of the original to The Athenaeum Theatre. Filipino-Australian singer Seann Miley Moore, discovered on The Voice, takes on the iconic role as a “slip of a girly boy” Berliner who goes to marry an American soldier but ends up abandoned in Kansas, on the cusp of another doomed romance. Torn between an idealistic vision of love and the urge to burn it all down. Hedwig is poised with a battered mic and a rhythm section full of Korean-born military wives, ready to test the limits of self-creation. 

Stephanie Lake Company’s The Chronicles is a sweeping meditation on time, change, and collective resilience, brought to life through a fusion of dance, choral music, and electrifying soundscapes. Premiering in Victoria for RISING at Arts Centre Melbourne, Lake’s new work comes home to Melbourne after receiving rave reviews during its Sydney Festival run in January. 

With 12 dancers embodying the fluid passage of time, their movements are intertwined with the celestial voices of The Yarra Voices Children’s Choir and the resonant baritone of Oliver Mann. Long time collaborator Robin Fox’s electro-acoustic composition pulses beneath it all, propelling the work forward with both urgency and grace. As the final installment in Lake’s triptych of large-scale works  - following Colossus (MIAF, 2019) and Manifesto (RISING, 2022) - The Chronicles offers a deeply moving exploration of life’s transformation, blending precision, power, and poetic beauty.

Also coming to Arts Centre Melbourne is the innovative live docu-drama POV involving fourteen unrehearsed actors and one camera-wielding kid. Created by artist Malcolm Whittaker and performance collective re:group performance collective, the story is centred around Bub, an 11-year-old girl obsessed with documentary filmmaking and on a mission to understand her fractured family. Each night, two new unrehearsed actors play the parents, while Bub (played with precocious verve by Edith Whitehead or Mabelle Rose) directs the action. The script is playful, heartfelt and funny but the picture shifts with the whims of human impulse as actors respond live and unprepared.

For a dance work with a more intimate lean, head to Chunky Move for The Act by choreographer and dancer Amrita Hepi and sex worker and writer Tilly Lawless. The new work explores the intersections of dance and sex work, examining the body as a vessel for both professional service and personal expression, challenging conventional perceptions of labour, authenticity, and representation. Framed by Daniel Janatch’s baroque sound design and directed by Mish Grigor, each performer speaks and moves within charged ambiguities - the body as a vehicle for desire and for expression. 

Pigeons is a thrilling, chaotic collision of music, technology, and performance, where percussionists face off against mechanical forces in an explosive battle of sound and survival at Melbourne Recital Centre.  Created by the audacious Speak Percussion, three robotic trap machines take centre stage hurling hundreds of fluorescent clay targets at a wall of suspended, resonant percussive objects. The musicians duck, flap, glide and slide among the projectiles, in a frantic search for safety while glorious music rings out. It’s percussionist vs pigeon, human vs machine.  

LEGENDS (of the Golden Arches) is a bold and witty two-hander that takes us on a bogus adventure through the Golden Arches and into Chinese hell. Co-created by emerging playwrights Joe Paradise Lui and Merlynn Tong, the Lawler Theatre will play host to this heart-filled buddy comedy that bends reality and serves extra pickles.

Across the city at Arts House in North Melbourne, acclaimed Joel Bray Dance premieres their latest major dance work Monolith. Muscular and sinewy, five fierce Brown women present themselves as an obstacle and as resistance - they are a monolith, an enormous ancient rock formation, coming together and apart. Sitting strong in the landscape, defying waves of colonisation, urbanisation and deforestation. This is an undeniable new work from Wiradjuri artist Bray, who echoes and honours generations of protest and rebellion. 

Mickey, the premiere work from Brooke Stamp, is a visceral plunge into the subconscious of a dancer, where movement becomes an unfiltered expression of raw impulse. In this ever-evolving performance, Stamp transforms her rehearsal space - Buxton Contemporary - into a living, breathing entity exposing the hidden rituals and fleeting moments that typically remain unseen. Each show unfolds uniquely, shaped by the present moment, as the dancer navigates a fluid landscape of instinct, memory, and transformation.

Visionary playwright S. Shakthidharan returns to RISING with another story of hope, betrayal, tradition and self-discovery. His Sri Lankan-Australian epic Counting and Cracking played to standing ovations at RISING 2024 and went on to triumphantly tour the UK and New York. Now the playwright brings us The Wrong Gods to Fairfax Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne, a gripping mother-daughter character study that delves into the complexities of tradition, progress, and self-discovery.

Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett presented by UMAC is a high-voltage cabaret igniting the untamed legacy of the rebel queen of Australian rock. Led by the powerhouse performer Sheridan Harbridge (Prima Facie) and directed by the acclaimed Sarah Goodes (Julia), this electrifying production, taking place at University of Melbourne’s Union Theatre, plunges into the raw, unfiltered world of the Divinyls’ frontwoman.

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