Australian physical theatre artist Joel Bray brings his immersive show. Daddy, to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time this summer, co-produced by the House of Oz. It draws on his experiences of his Aboriginal culture via his father.
“Joel has Daddy issues. In a party of pick’n’mix participation, acclaimed Aboriginal choreographer, Joel Bray, hankers for his father and their lost mother tongue. Creating a candy-coloured world, he folds and sifts his way amongst the audience, playfully seducing the room with a dollop of queer desire while prodding the deep cavities of colonisation. Heartbreaking and hilarious, Daddy is a provocative confection of conversation, choreography and (actual) cream. Joel soft-serves a sugar rush of spontaneous community where everyone is safe, and licking is optional. ‘Does performance art get more powerful and intimate?’ * (Sydney Morning Herald).”
Where: Main Hall at Summerhall
When: 6-31 Aug
Ticket link: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/daddy
What can you tell us about your show? What is it about and where did the idea come from?
Daddy was my second work. The first show I made was called Biladurang, and it was a small work for a small audience set in a hotel room. The nucleus of Daddy was in the writings that were left over from that show. A lot of them were about a kind of yearning, a longing for love, a longing for my father and for my Wiradjuri Aboriginal culture.
I’d been disconnected from that because of my disconnection from my father, so Daddy became about the weird entangling of those things – the desire for love, sex, and for men as a part of my queer sexuality, but also the deep longing for my culture and birthright that were denied for me by colonisation.
Daddy is also a response to the right-wing trope we hear all the time that says colonisation is all in the past and Aboriginal people should just get over it, ‘you’re all equal citizens now’. This ignores the fact that we Aboriginal people, families and communities are still living with the realities and the consequences of colonisation, that equality is in many ways theoretical and aspirational and something we have yet to achieve.
I wanted to draw people’s attention to that by telling the story of myself and my family. I didn’t want it to be a lecture; I wanted it to be an encounter full of humour and play and pleasure as well as an opportunity to have honest conversations about difficult topics. And so this complex weaving of me and my story, my family story, my sexuality, my cultural heritage looks at how we as people at this cataclysmic moment in history can come together and be together into the future.
How would you sell it to audiences in one paragraph?
Daddy is a rare piece of performance. Through detailed, beautiful choreography, honed by my decades dancing with contemporary dance companies around the world, and my own charming storytelling style, I open my heart and tell my Aboriginal family’s story of survival and my own search for love and sex. It’s funny and sexy and sad and, with the audience turning me into a huge dessert covered in candy and chocolate, it is very, very sticky!
Do you enjoy participating in the Fringe? And do you have any moments you particularly remember?
This is my first time at the Edinburgh Fringe; I don’t normally perform in Fringe festivals, so I’m excited. I feel like it’s a rite of passage for contemporary performers and it will have a certain hectic but powerful buzz to it that I’m really looking forward to diving into.
It’s also a rare opportunity to perform a long run. I love being able to do that because it allows me to find new detail in the work, make beautiful little edits that improve it, and find new ways of connecting with the audience. And I’m looking forward to the bars afterwards!
What are you looking forward to the most in Edinburgh?
My birth surname is Kirkbright – a Scottish name. I’ve never been to Scotland before so I’m really excited about taking a show about one part of my ancestry to the place that is the home of another part of my ancestry. I’m really curious to see what it’s like. I’ve enjoyed meeting every Scottish person I’ve ever met so I can’t wait to dive into life in Edinburgh, including the crazy version of the city that happens during the Festival.
What’s next for the show?
Ha ha! I’ve been performing this show since 2019, and people keep on asking for it. It seems to have an impact, so the gag I’ve been saying for a while is that if I keep on performing it, I’m gonna have to change the title to Granddaddy!