Travis Alabanza’s international breakout hit Burgerz will take the stage at Theatre Works as part of 2023 Midsumma Festival this February.
Helmed by the Green Room Award winning team behind The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven, this Australasian premiere will be the first international production to feature a new performer in the lead role; Melbourne’s most exciting up-and-coming trans artist, Kikki Temple.
Funny, confronting, flirtatious and sometimes a bit messy, Burgerz combines confessional storytelling, live cooking, and audience interaction to recreate a trans person of colour’s lived experience.
Poignantly unpredictable, Burgerz lifts the lid off gender and race politics by asking us to reflect on our own complicity. To be unregulated is to be dangerous.
In broad daylight in April 2016 at Flinders Street Station, a burger was thrown at Kikki whilst someone shouted a transphobic slur. Over one hundred people saw, and no one did anything. To understand this act of violence, Kikki needs to make a burger – with the help of a stranger.
Burgerz is the climax of their obsession – exploring how trans bodies survive in public spaces and how they can reclaim an act of violence.
“I remember feeling like this was a story I needed to tell. Like the words have been on my lips the whole time but I just didn’t know how to get them out,” said Kikki.
“When I read what Travis had written, I felt a sense of relief knowing someone had articulated what I had been trying to say the whole time.”
Carving out a place as one of the UK’s prominent trans voices, Alabanza is an award-winning theatre maker and trans activist who has opened arena shows for Jonathan van Ness and Alok Vaid-Menon.
Burgerz has played internationally in Sao Paulo, Southbank Centre, Bristol Old Vic, Smock Alley Dublin, HAU Berlin, and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won the Total Theatre award.
Kikki Temple is an Actress, drag artist, playwright and advocate. From the depths of her soul, her song bubbles up, like fire. Molten lava sprung from the depths of the earth.
Teller of stories and advocate for many, Kikki draws her strength from an understanding and recognition of her ancestors, accessible through every plane.
Trained in traditional Maori performing and martial arts on her marae and other wananga, she stands on the many things she has inherited, through song, dance, written word.
Director: Kitan Petkovski | Performer: Kikki Temple | Set and Costume Design: Bethany J Fellows | Lighting Design: Katie Sfetkidis | Sound Design: Rachel Lewindon | Stage Management: Koh Yi Wei | Writer: Travis Alabanza | Co-Producer: Ro Bright
Burgerz
Theatre Works, 14 Acland St, St Kilda
Season: 10 – 18 February 2023 (previews: 8 – 9 February)
Information and Bookings: www.theatreworks.org.au
Image: Kikki Temple (supplied)