THE BOON COMPANIONS: DANCE MAGIC DANCE – THE WEDDING RECEPTION

The Boon Companions cordially invite you to the fictional wedding reception of Peter and Sherry, where you can dress up in your best late 80s garb and dance the night away.

The Melbourne based anonymous art collective will bring their immersive Dance Magic Dance experience to Sydney for the first time. Active since 2015, The Boon Companions put on art parties meet experimental theatre events that recruit around 40 performers and ask attendees to don a costume for the occasion.

“We had a basic vision for [the events]…we wanted them to be parties, with drinking and dancing, and flirting and smooching, but also parties with sub-textual narratives, with people in character and little immersive one-on-one experiences and group experiences,” said one of the group’s founding artists.

The events are hosted in venues with multiple rooms for audiences to discover and surprise appearances are made by unadvertised special guests (past guests have included Judith Lucy, Lawrence Leung and Kram from Spiderbait). The unpredictable, the unexpected and the prospect of the-anything-could-happen makes for theatre that you explore on your feet.

“We’re anonymous. We make art where no one’s name is on the bill. It’s a completely non-cynical exercise in art, and art as a gift. I just think there’s something very beautiful about making art that gives people an optimistic sense of belonging and a sense of connectivity.”

The parties centre on different themes and have been set, among other eras, in Paris in the 1960s, backstage at a Bob Fosse concert, the night before the men went off to fight in WWII and during the second wave of feminism in 1972.

“Some audience members ended up setting fire to their bras and walking around topless, which we didn’t expect, but it was a very enjoyable twist to the evening,” the artist said of the latter.

“At the war party everyone was dressed up as soldiers and sailors, we had a swing band, and a spy who was taking people outside for secret missions. There was an artist doing sketches of people’s sweethearts to take to the trenches. At the end of the night, a siren went off and we made all the men leave the building. Tim Rogers came out and sang ‘We’ll Meet Again’ and all the women danced on their own – people were crying, it was this really beautiful, poignant thing.”

“So amongst all the wearing of stupid costumes and having a dance, we hope that there will be these beautiful, strange human moments as well,” she added.

Whether audience participation is your gravest fear or your perceived gateway into the glory of the bright lights, the shows are designed to respect different levels of audience engagement.

“[The shows are] interactive and immersive but only to the point where every individual audience member is comfortable with,” the artist said.

“You can spend an entire happy night with a drink in your hand observing and not having to interact with any of the performers if you want, or you could be sitting in the middle of a dance circle under a spotlight.”

You may not know who you’ll meet, what you’ll do or what you’ll see when you buy a ticket, but trust and blind faith may just lead to some weird and unique experiences.

“Once you get there, don’t wait to be directed…move around the space as you see fit, create your own narrative and something magical might happen. We love the idea of no two people having the same experience at our events.” (SH)

Jul 9, 7.30pm. The Works Glebe, 62 Glebe Point Road. $21.89–$32.34. Tickets & info: eventbrite.com.au 

BY SHON HO