Campfire is a warm, expressive, and impressive act of acrobatics and physicality. The audience follows two friends, Louis (Green) and Griffin (Hooper), as they hike through the bush. They have strange interactions with an aberration (Naz Turner) who is up to some mischief. This dance piece is bursting with expression and athleticism. A whole narrative, character development and plot, is conveyed solely through dance. Campfire unleashed is filled with rich creative dance, with the three dancers using their powerful bodies to effectively tell the story of two friends and the mysterious person in the bush. All the dancers were able to move around the stage gracefully with ease, no language was needed, as the dancers articulated themselves with their bodies.
The show starts with Turner mysteriously dancing around the stage. It felt like he was a spirit welcoming the audience, acknowledging the bush and land the show is set on. Once turner creeps off stage, Louis and Griffin greet each other warmly with exaggerated chest bumps, and quickly get to hiking. The audience then gets to watch as both boys try to set up camp with whimsical athleticism. Shockingly, somehow, the boys end up having to share a sleeping bag! Louis and Griffin remain consistently and dramatically expressive throughout the whole ordeal, expressing their wild personalities through their movements and interactions with each other. Louis, Griffin, and the aberration then each have their solo dance numbers, highlight specific skills of each dancer in impressive and unique ways. Each dancer utilised new forms of dance, surprising the audience with their different movements.
Throughout the performance each dancer exhibits a great deal of control in their movements. The physicality and countenance of each performer builds drama and tension through every movement. Each dancer is afforded their own moment to creatively express their characters thoughts and feelings, be it fear, terror, or elated excitement. Although there are serious moments of anxiety pepper throughout the show, overall Campfire Unleashed remained light hearted and silly. Even more impressively, the silly characters remained sexy, given the visibly powerful bodies of all three dancers. The creative and modern dancing was sown together in ways that I didn’t expect, forming an experience both astounding and delightful.
To book tickets to Campfire Unleashed, please visit https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2026/campfire-unleashed.
Photographer: Aaron Walker
