The Five Best Things to See at Wonderland 2015

Get into the festive spirit, Brisbane: Wonderland is a-coming. No, not the white kind, even if Christmas is just around the corner. With the city’s current scorching, stormy heat, winter isn’t part of the equation.

Instead, for the next two weeks, Brisbane Powerhouse plays host to all things odd and amazing. A new festival making its maiden outing, Wonderland celebrates the sultry, seductive, anarchic and entertaining, in an event tailor-made for late summer evenings spent by the river. We’re talking carny folk, circus performers, burlesque, barely clad men, comedy stars and singing sirens as the iconic New Farm venue transforms into a nighttime playground.

The inaugural program is bustling with shows to see, so we’re here to help. What weird and wonderful offerings should you rush to? Here's five to start with.

BRIEFS: The Second Coming!

The boys of burlesque are back — in their hometown, and with their new show. The internationally renowned all-male troupe described as an Aussie Cirque du Soleil meets RuPaul’s Drag Race returns for another round of outrageous entertainment in the aptly titled BRIEFS: The Second Coming. Expect their unique brand of circus acrobatics crossed with drag artistry, with ample lashings of satire, silliness and too-close-for-comfort talk and tricks thrown in for extra fun. On Friday nights, make a whole evening out of their adventurous antics with the show-stopping, sequin-clad Club BRIEFS as well, complete with a selection of guest appearances.

December 3-14

Icarus Falling

Even if you think that spoken word isn’t your thing, Scott Wings’ latest offering, Icarus Falling, just might prove otherwise. A one-man aural assault, his raw and personal hour of performance poetry rumbles like rap but resonates like only the best, blistering stories can, delivered with poignancy and stunning physicality. As the clearly title intimates, the famed ancient Grecian myth provides his starting point, and is intertwined with an account of the impact of mental illness through the contemplation of flight. Humour and lyricism combine in a mesmerising effort that comes back to Brisbane for the first time after proving a standout of the Edinburgh Fringe.

December 5-7

Public Toilets, Private Words

We’ve all been there: in a nightclub bathroom in the darkest hours of the evening, and suddenly privy to the innermost secrets uttered by those in neighbouring stalls, or scrawled on filthy walls. Slurred words turn into whispered confessions, just as scribbled notes turn into offbeat reading. In this cheeky show, they also turn into song. Public Toilets, Private Worlds turns the drunken rants, earnest musings and crude invitations from graffiti into hilarious stories and surprisingly catchy tunes. Who knows, your own experiences might even form a part of this journey into the hidden recesses of human behaviour, coming to Wonderland fresh from its hit season at the 2014 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

December 11 and 14.

Grimm

Reimagining fairy tales: in film and on television, everybody’s doing it. You can be excused for thinking every conceivable variation has been done before; however, ImproMafia is set to prove you wrong. Combining the art of improvisation with the bedtime stories you know and love, Grimm twists familiar tales in directions even the players on stage can’t anticipate. Every show and every night, anything can happen — and as an audience member, your suggestions could be incorporated into the performance. After wowing audiences at the Brisbane Fringe Festival, Grimm returns to swing once more from the grisly to the absurd.

December 12 and 13

Pretending Things Are a Cock

Look, we’re not above this kind of humour — and, let’s be honest, neither are you. Comedian Jon Bennett isn’t either, and he’s beginning to make a blossoming career out of it, collecting awards on the international comedy circuit from San Diego to Perth. The show’s title may say it all, and his more than 15,000 Facebook fans already know and love it; however, there’s more to Pretending Things Are a Cock than photos of phallic shapes made prominent for puerile amusement. Expect a slew of heartwarming stories, and a healthy slice of insight into looking at the world differently. Still, mostly dicks though.

December 12-14

Wonderland runs from December 3 to 14. View the full program at the Brisbane Powerhouse website.