‘Come for the party, stay for the protest’: The cabaret show rewriting Pacific norms

When the lights go up on Polytoxic’s Dangerous Goods at the Auckland Live Cabaret Festival, it’s a world-class display of circus, aerials, and burlesque served with political resistance.

Audiences will witness a fierce friction of Pacific women actively unlearning generations of cultural shame on stage.

Created by artistic renegades Lisa Fa’alafi and Leah Shelton, the production flips the traditional, glitter-soaked cabaret on its head to tackle deep-seated systemic issues.

Dangerous Goods explores themes such as female empowerment, racial inequality, cultural resistance through cabaret, circus, and comedy.

Fa’alafi and Kalala Sione, a spoken-word performer in the show, told Niu FM’s The Morning Shack about the importance of having an “unapologetic” conversation in this way.

“Being able to have fun and have a laugh on stage, but also tell our stories, reclaim our culture, [and] the importance of decolonisation,” Kalala says.

“It's really been amazing to be able to create a space for us to share our joy and our rage and our truth and just have fun.

“Just knowing that when people come, they leave with feeling empowered and also just, you know, wanting to stand on business, stand on their beliefs. It's a big party and we always say ‘come for the party and stay for the protest’.”

Fa’alafi reflects on turning 50 and how the stage has become a vessel for decolonising herself.

Listen to the full interview on the Morning Shack Run Back Podcast below.

“I have a lot of those ingrained things that I need to break within myself,” Fa'alafi admits. “Part of my work has been how you flex between what I guess is considered taboo...losing the shame around some of our body and our voices being very up to the front.”

Kalala says Dangerous Goods amplifies a generational shift that is already happening to the stage.

“The world is changing, and so are young women,” Sione says. “We're also changing and redefining what it means to be a Sāmoan woman in this day and age.

“Having to carry the respect and the cultural traditions along with that is interesting, especially when everyone does have an opinion.”

Dangerous Goods is showing as part of the Auckland Live Cabaret Festival at the Civic Theatre which ends 5 July.

Polytoxic unites a powerhouse, multidisciplinary sisterhood with renowned aerialists Mayu Muto and Cecilia Martin, and Lilikoi Kaos.

Kalala believes on and off-stage collaboration turns what could be a lonely, isolating cultural struggle into an ensemble rebellion.

“Dangerous Goods, the danger that we're talking about could be putting our bodies on the line during an act. It's the danger that could be our ideas. It could be truth telling,” Kalala says.

“It's really a call to dismantle some of the oppressive systems that we live in today. But really, when we're doing the show, we ask the audience to make noise when they see something dangerous.

“So it's really about calling things out and acknowledging.”

Dangerous Goods runs from 1 - 5 July at Auckland’s Civic Theatre, tickets are available here.