Review: Comeback Festival Week at Goodwood Theatre and Studios

Review by Lisa Lanzi

Two one-hour shows opened the popular COMEBACK Festival this week: Goddess Era from Wilde and Darling Productions, and i know the end from Alix Kuijpers, multidisciplinary performing artist.   For three weeks in August, audiences are invited to see two shows in one night, enjoy a home-cooked meal with a drink from the bar, and connect through shared experiences in the inviting environs. Artistic Director Simone Avramidis, Goodwood Theatre & Studios, says: "COMEBACK was born from a simple idea: if a production has moved audiences, sparked conversations and demonstrated artistic excellence, why should its journey end after a single season? This festival gives artists the support to return, grow and reach new audiences."

Goddess Era was originally performed in February 2023 at Goodwood Theatre and Studios as part of the Adelaide Fringe and was shortlisted for the Holden Street Theatres award.  Written and performed by Sarah Kwong and Shannen Beckett, this hour-long adventure guides audiences through the lives of four (partially) fictional characters after a short feminist-tinted investigation of the Goddesses Artemis, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, and Medusa.  The lives of Anna, Andy, Cassie, and Melinda are essentially renderings of the Goddesses’ experiences through a contemporary, female-centric lens.

Sarah Kwong guides much of the narrative with fierce, eloquent, flowing prose alongside a confident and anchoring stage presence; it is a delight to see the evolution of this performer/creator.  Alongside Kwong, and donning her guitar as a kind of shield, Shannen Beckett performs haunting original songs plus covers of tunes by Ani DiFranco, dodie, and Missy Higgins.  Beckett also beautifully embodies facets of various female characters with a calm, quiet-but-piercing vocalization of the text.  Kwong and Beckett are quite the dynamic duo on stage both complementing and contrasting each other but always in perfect synchrony.

The four stories we are privy to touch on complex themes: women learning from childhood that to ‘become smaller’ is the right path to acceptance; couple situations that generally appear happy and reasonable but are actually disguising emotional or other invisible abuses; successful women who relish the “platonic female gaze” of good friends beside independent life choices being judged by both males and females to be somehow ‘lacking’.  Instances in these story-tellings will resonate with someone in an audience, whether through personal experience or witnessing someone they know go through similar.  Despite the seriousness of theme, there are light-hearted, laugh out loud moments.  Beautiful songs and solo guitar (or uke) also layer the narrative to illustrate rhythms of intergenerational trauma and habit many have experienced in some form.

It is such a pleasure to witness two younger performers boldly and confidently distil feminist and humanist notions in an original theatre work, and who are accomplished yet still developing.  It leaves me with hope that folk within coming generations will ensure, through art and culture and social commentary, shifts toward a more understanding, generous, and compassionate world – at the very least in the areas of consent, and gender and power balances.  We are capable and able, as Kwong so poetically says: “to stitch a new story under your skin”.

Show 2, i know the end, is another tender and deep exploration of self and connection, this time through dance/physical theatre – or is it a ‘happening’, given its almost immersive nature?  Alix Kuijpers both choreographed and designed the fabulous sound score for this intimate work.  The initial Adelaide performance won a 2023 Emerging Artist Award and one of the Weekly ‘Best Dance’ Awards at Adelaide Fringe.  I saw and reviewed this work in 2023 and it has morphed considerably since then.  My initial reflection is that the work has matured and coalesced to better represent the artistic intentions.

Kuijpers joined the inaugural 2025 B12:Mavericks program in Berlin and has had other experiences collaborating and performing across Europe.  I would say that this European influence has produced and inspired a fresh, clearer approach to i know the end.  The same elements are present: Kuijpers’ choreography and vision brought to life by exceptional performers/collaborators Caroline de Wan and Fern Mines with their potent chemistry and effortless technique; the playfulness and joy; the intimate moments; the very dark lighting states that focus an audience and allow movement to pervade as pure form and emotion; the plethora of bed sheets draped over the space denoting an intimate yet pure otherness.  Yet dramaturgically, this version is more potent in exploring the essence of queer growth and relationships with a side of joyfulness. 

The new, abstracted beginning is both a study in focus and unison and much stronger: both dancers traversing to centre, opposite one another, mirroring footsteps and voicing a text commenting on ‘alien-ness’.  The theme of feeling ‘alien’ is brought to life by de Wan and Mines and is easy to associate with, even if you don’t identify as queer; there are moments in many lives where that sense of not belonging anywhere is pervasive and destructive.  That is not to take away from queer youth who unfortunately and without doubt still have an incredibly difficult road to navigate at times.

After settling on the centred mattress, one at a time a character bounces into movement, as if from a nightmare, into a medley of dance, only to fall back and displace the other.  This entrancing back-and-forth repetition eventually transitions to more playful episodes, including draping an audience member with a sheet, underneath which torchlight and secret storytelling pervade; or inviting viewers to fold a sheet, or later to hold then toss one.  This joy and playfulness is both delightful and poignant, in that not everyone is able, or invited to, indulge in play so easily.

Fern Mines has been quoted as saying:  “I think for me performing in this work is particularly meaningful because I feel like it’s a gift to my younger self. A shyer, less confident version who would be so proud of how much I’ve grown as a person and as an artist, and the confidence I now have in who I am and my sexuality. I will perform this piece for her and all the young people growing up working out where they fit in.”  

Daring experimentation and energy in Kuijpers works are always apparent elements, and their passion to develop as an artist is palpable each time I view a new work of theirs.  Bravo and bring on the next chapters.

Image Supplied