Break out the stripey shirts and conical bras: Jean Paul Gaultier’s outrageous life and fashions are set to hit the stage as the centrepiece of Brisbane Festival 2024. The festival’s full program has been unveiled, with Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show as an Australian exclusive. An episodic performance that audiences can “binge-watch” and a dance piece by a choreographer with Down Syndrome are other highlights of the festival, which will run from August 30 to September 21.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show is a collision of fashion, music, pop culture, cabaret and art. Credit: Mark Senior Festival director Louise Bezzina said the Gaultier show originated at the Folies Bergere in Paris and would play in Brisbane at South Bank Piazza. “It’s a full retrospective of Jean Paul Gaultier’s life in a theatrical production: big numbers, lots of couture, and all the big pop icons that Gaultier has influenced, like Madonna, David Bowie and Boy George,” she said.
Bezzina said the show would nonetheless have a strong local link, with the participation of Queensland Indigenous artist Grace Lillian Lee. “People are looking to be excited, they want to see something that they don’t get to see every day,” says Artistic Director Louise Bezzina on curating her fifth Brisbane Festival. Credit: Nigel Hallett “She travelled to Paris and had some time with Jean Paul Gaultier, which will result in pieces of couture especially made by Grace Lillian Lee in the .
