Feature: The House of Oz Showcase

Australia House, the Australian High Commission is a grand and fitting venue to showcase performers from The House of Oz. Presenting House Without Walls, hosted by the delightful Georgie Black, founder and creative director of House of Oz.

In their third year at Edinburgh Fringe in partnership with the Assembly Festival, House Without Walls is a tailor made showcase of Australia’s finest talent. They present twelve shows across multiple genres, including comedians, dancers and singers; a truly remarkable line up and the artists should be commended for presenting snippets of their shows in such a short amount of time.

The evening starts with a bright sunny House of Oz line up of actors, producers and directors. His Excellency the honorable Stephen Smith opens the show with a speech, taking great pride to acknowledge the indigenous people of Australia, the arts and the importance of artistic relations with the Commonwealth.

The opening act is performed by a band called Down Under performing The Songs That Shaped Australia. I’m blown away by Michelle Person‘s powerful vocals.

As someone who has had a long-term relationship with contemporary dance I was eager to see the dance acts. Lien is a one-on-one performance with performer and an audience member. The dance is about embodying the beauty of the human connection. There are some beautiful movements and moments of real connection.

Na Djinang Circus with Circa Carins is a unique performance of rediscovering land and country. Their movements create shapes that convey a strong relationship between people and mother earth. This is emphasized by the great music, of what sounded like a sitar and didgeridoo, but don’t hold me to that.

Other acts that are the highlight of the evening are The Listies, Rolf (who were winners of Melbourne Fringe 2023) and Dolly Diamond, Australia’s Queen of Cabaret.

The Listies appear as hosts introducing each act. They are children’s comedians that make me rediscover the child in me. I caught myself giggling at the silliest of jokes.

Dolly Diamond comes in with a bang. I applaud Dolly’s improvisation and crowd work followed by a hilarious song. But what does it for me was when Dolly caught me off guard and saw me making notes and proceeded to say, ‘I see you scribbling away it better be bloody good!‘. Dolly Diamond is Queen for good reason.

All round it was a fantastic evening with talented performers and a great opportunity to see a multifaceted line up of artists and genres.

House of Oz will be hosting shows at Edinburgh Fringe throughout August; 12 shows, ten venues, twenty-six days and three hundred and seventy-two performances.