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Finucne & Smith

Internationally renowned for their arresting mix of provocation and entertainment in performance works that both cherish and challenge their audiences, Finucane & Smith create intimate theatrical spectacles that mine old style entertainment genres and meld them into indelible visions of liberation, oppression, humanity, power and desire.

Arising from the fifteen year partnership of acclaimed volcanic performance artist and writer Moira FINUCANE and theatre creator and director Jackie SMITH, Finucane & Smith engage extraordinary artists and hijack myriad artforms to create intriguing, welcoming, complex and highly politicised ‘worlds' for their audiences to occupy. Crossing hard core industrial with early opera, the literary gothic with burlesque, circus with drama, feminist performance art with sideshow, fine art with fine food, they celebrate the complexity and redemptive potential of humanity.

Playing contemporary, underground and populist contexts around the world, they have continuously captured the imagination of incredibly diverse audiences in Australia and internationally. Their legendary Salon The Burlesque Hour has been seen by over 45,000 people since its 2005 premiere in 27 sell out Australian and international seasons.

They have played to critical acclaim in Japan, Sweden, Hungary, England, Scotland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Slovenia, Italy and Croatia; and in Australia in myriad contexts including the international arts festivals of Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane. Their work has been nominated for 16 Australian theatre awards and won 10, including The Patrick White Playwright Award and 7 Green Room Awards.

Finucane & Smith continue to have an undeniable influence at the cutting edge of political and populist performance; bringing profoundly underground work to mainstream audiences; consistently burning the envelope when it comes to what can be presented within an entertaining context; their work on the female body and desire is the subject of continued academic discourse; they are cited by cultural practitioners around the world as a source of inspiration; and they attract audiences that don't even like theatre: "beats the f**k out of Friday night footy" (Geelong punter at the Burlesque Hour).