Shadow House Party at the Courtyard Studio presents theatre, music and dance

Shadow House Party. Various artists. Restricted to audiences 18 and older. The Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre. January 17 (preview) to 21 at 7pm.

If you like your theatre experiences varied, how's this for an evening's entertainment? Take a punk-rock reworking of Hamlet and add the musings of a bathtub philosopher together with a performance art piece reminding us that behind our masks, we are just animals. Throw in an after-show dance party and a bar – together with a complimentary pre-show drink – and Shadow House Party, coming soon to the Courtyard Studio, sounds like something a little out of the ordinary.

It unites three Canberra companies, KREWD, Shadow House PITS and Acoustic Theatre Troupe, in their first collaboration as a trio.

Acoustic Theatre Troupe's artistic director Lucy Matthews says she was talking to KREWD's founder Bambi Valentine last year about a new show she wanted to perform in January. Valentine suggested teaming up with her and Joe Woodward's Shadow House PITS for a theatre festival and it grew from there, with many cast members crossing over between Matthews and Valentine's productions.

KREWD's works – on its own or in co-productions – look at the beautiful and the grotesque in humanity and how they are often interchangeable and A KREWD Incarnate is no exception. As the audience members enter the pre-show, the cast are posed as "sexy animal installations – looking at humanity, we're really just animals", Valentine says.

Audience members can collect a complimentary drink and interact with the posed animal installations until 7.30pm when Valentine says "the installations take on new energy" and things become more extreme in the show, in which they regress to an animal-like state.

Meredith Music Festival 2016 review

Making her entrance wearing a giant vulva on her head, Peaches rocked the crowd as she did the foundations of gender norms and expectations at Meredith Music Festival.
                 

The Canadian electronic music artist put on a wild, over-the-top, politically charged performance on Saturday night.

The sexually explicit show could be passed off as smutty titillation but her message means she is no novelty act.

Gender-bending, bondage-clad back-up dancers simulated sex acts as she sang about female objectification, vaginoplasty and sexual freedom.

It cumulated with her climbing inside a massive inflatable condom as she sang Dick in Air: "We've been shaking our tits for years, so let's switch positions. No inhibitions."

The music at this year's Meredith – held at a farm between Geelong and Ballarat since 1991 – was varied but almost always good.

On Friday night, Prince collaborator and percussionist Sheila E had the crowd in a frenzy as she belted out the late purple one's hits. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Kelela were also standouts of the night.

Over in the camping grounds, four friends – some in sailor hats – were rowing to an imaginary location in a inflatable boat on top of a Kombi van.

Just before close on Sunday afternoon, as always, was the Meredith Gift – also known as the world's greatest nude footrace – which sees festival-goers compete in a naked sprint.

Special guest MC comedian Judith Lucy asked competitors to do yoga poses before each heat, including the downward dog, to cheers from the crowd.

There were disappointingly no tumbles this year, but there was some blood and a girl with a strap-on who skipped and waved pom poms as she made her way around the track. She came last, but all agreed she was the winner.