Hot Brown Honey | Image: Chrissie Hall

Get ready to “decolonize and moisturize.” Hot Brown Honey is back.

Last year when I attended Hot Brown Honey I truly had no idea what to expect. Friends who had seen the show before me during The Cultch’s Femme January, would be at a loss for adjectives when I asked for their review. “Just go,” they’d urge. “You’re going to love it.”

And love it I did.

Hailed as “equal parts theatrical spectacular and social activism,” Hot Brown Honey is an Australian-born, absolutely bonkers, wild and wacky, intersectional and political, hilarious and creative, get-up-on-your-feet, theatre experience that took Vancouver and The Cultch by storm. And lucky for us, tonight, the Honeys return to the York Theatre for a two-week run that absolutely must not be missed.

“It started as a club; we have been working together for quite a long time. And we were like, ‘Where’s the space for our stories, worlds, kookiness, political-ness? There was no place for us to bust down and be centre stage. We were like, ‘Let’s do this! Let’s ride ourselves onto stage,’” says Hot Brown Honey co-creator and director Lisa Fa’alafi.

“This is our fifth year with Hot Brown Honey, we just continued to build it and make it work and reply to what’s current in politics or what’s happening in our lives. It’s the same show, we make it more full the more we learn,” adds co-creator Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers.

The Brisbane-based squad is comprised of six performers, Ofa Fotu, Hope ‘Hope One’ Haami, Elena Wangurram, Crystal Stacey, and as well as Fa’alafi and ‘Busty Beatz’.

“The nature of the work that we make is cross-genre, genre defying we like to say. We choose genres that our performers are versed at and will assist in telling the stories. People like to categorize us as cabaret, but I feel like it’s more than that,” says Fa’alafi.

“Hot Brown Honey is this rollercoaster ride of dance, theatre, hip-hop, circus, soul music, poetry- all of this mixed together. And [we] use all of those tools as a social activism platform. We understand that satire, comedy, music can break down barriers. If as a collective in that moment we can laugh, share, and then maybe our ears will open to different stories. It is truly an intersectional feminist show.”

Vancouver isn’t the only Hot Brown Honey fan; it turns out the Honeys have garnered a stellar reputation in a few other continents as well. Hot Brown Honey was the recipient of the 2016 UK’s Total Theatre Award for Innovation, and Australia’s Green Room Awards for Best Production and Best Design.

“The love we feel in Vancouver is very, very awesome. It’s great to be back and there’s a real sense, from what we’ve been told in audience feedback, that we can make a change and we can build together–no matter how small that change is. We’re really interested in making the world a better place, so that’s our aim. And for all the audience members that have been messaging us, Vancouver has been some of our best shows we have done because of the connection and openness with the audience so we hope to build on that this season.”

“Fighting the power never tasted so sweet!” Hot Brown Honey returns to The Cultch March 15-30. An ASL Interpreted performance is being offered Mar 28 at 8PM. Tickets are going fast! Grab yours here.