Australia's Briefs Factory brings drag, burlesque, and circus to the Vancouver stage
The genre-defying, gender-bending company’s Dirty Laundry is loaded with punk energy
Dirty Laundry. Photo by Ven Tithing
The Cultch and Zee Zee Theatre present Dirty Laundry from June 9 to 25 and Brats Carnival on June 17 and 24 at the York Theatre
FEZ FAANANA SOMETIMES wonders where he’d be these days had he pursued rugby in his home country of Australia rather than the arts. Had he stuck with that uber-popular sport, he certainly wouldn’t be travelling the world with the all-male genre-mashing and gender-bending creative collective that is Briefs Factory. The company combines circus, drag, dance, burlesque, music, comedy, and political commentary, its members armed with glitter bombs and dressed to the nines in sultry outfits and wigs that are works of art.
After a decade of selling out festivals worldwide, the organization that Faanana founded and directs will soon touch down on Canada’s West Coast for the Vancouver premiere of its newest work, Dirty Laundry, a raucous party cabaret.
Fez Faanana.
Being able to share the risqué and outrageous joy that Briefs Factory specializes in with audiences worldwide is Faanana’s calling.
“After an upbringing embedded with contemporary Samoan Australian culture, rugby and good hearty education were definitely at the forefront of my game plan,” Faanana shares in an interview with Stir. “I developed an early taste for creativity and performing arts, and with the support of my family and high-school teachers, I was privileged enough to pursue all of those things.
“After high school, I became less active in rugby, and I pursued theatre and dance which eventually led me to finding my family sitting on the edge of performing arts in circus, drag, and burlesque. I feel like circus, drag, and burlesque sit complementary together, and they can cross over and collide in an interesting way. I still love to watch rugby and I sometimes imagine where I would be if I went down that road.”
Amid all the frolic, punk energy, and flirting, Briefs Factory takes visibility and inclusivity very seriously. Faanana—whose alter ego is Shivannah, a host, MC, choreographer, creative director, performer, and collaborator—says the organization aims to give “more depth, voice and narrative to the characters in a 90s Benetton ad campaign”.
“Briefs Factory's mission is to glitter bomb people with a theatrical escape into the world of circus, drag, and burlesque,” Faanana says, “and to engage as many artists, to entertain as many audiences, and to diversify the visibility and experiences of artists and audiences.
“We want all audiences to know that this show is for everyone,” he adds. “There is a seat for you, and you are all invited.”
That invitation extends to young’uns, too, with Briefs Factory also presenting Brats Carnival on its Vancouver tour stop. The full-energy, afternoon, all-ages show is a mix of high-flying acrobatics, cheeky clowning, super-fast Hula Hooping, and general mischief. It was created specifically to get young people excited about expressing themselves.
But back to Dirty Laundry. Glam Adelaide called the show “the drag party you always wish you’d be invited to!”
“Dirty Laundry was made towards the end of the pandemic madness,” Faanana says. “We made it in response to that weird time, but we really focused on the breadth of our experiences with a sense of celebration and rawness. It was a way of acknowledging the elephant in the room and moving forward. Dirty Laundry is an elevated variety that flows and flips through a series of acts and antidotes around the concept of ‘airing one’s laundry’.
“The music is bangin’ with a mix of old-school cheesy classics, some 90s femme punk, pop ear worms, and experimental sounds,” Faanana says. “The costumes are always ridiculous, fun, and fleshy.”
The crew enlisted the services of visual artist, wig maker, photographic artist, and designer Gia Mitchell, the company’s manager and key creative, for the production’s design and won Queensland’s Matilda theatre award for it.
Briefs Factory’s trip to Vancouver has been in the works for a long while; the company was scheduled to perform a different show, The Second Coming, at the York Theatre in April 2020, but the pandemic nixed those plans. The Cultch and Zee Zee Theatre are extending their 2023 season to mount Dirty Laundry.
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