The stunning show sees Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi and Wiradjuri storyteller and dreamer Dr Alethea Beetson take to the stage in a one-woman tour de force performance that combines multiple mediums – including live music, video, and monologues.

“In all honesty, I never grew out of the ‘singing into a hairbrush and dancing in your bedroom’ phase from childhood,” says Alethea. “And I would often find myself changing the lyrics to my favourite pop songs – to make them Blak.”

From those bedroom beginnings Alethea has gone on to establish an incredible career in the Indigenous arts and music scene. She has worked as a First Nations Producer for BIGSOUND music festival as well as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program Lead at Spotify.

In 2014 she founded Digi Youth Arts, a not-for-profit arts organisation that empowers young indigenous people through creative exploration and story-telling. Then in 2020 she launched Blak Social, an Indigenous arts company working across music, film and theatre. Since its inception Blak Social has facilitated the popular Blak Day Out festival, countless musical events and three theatre works, including Meet Your Maker.  

The story is set in the fictional universe of Queen’s City, in a post-Land Back timeline where Indigenous pop culture is the norm and not the token. A split second before the biggest show of her career, an Indigenous pop artist goes missing. Wrestling with every choice she’s ever made, our icon traverses deep time to meet her makers in an attempt to discover the truth. 

“The idea of a pop artist going missing right before a Superbowl Halftime show to go and meet her makers was brought together by so many inspirations,” said Althea. “I love Indigenising pop culture so that is at the heart of Meet Your Maker, and all of my work. As an artist who also works in the music industry, there is a strong pop music thread throughout the show – partly because I am speaking to my lived experience.” 

“I am also on a path of radical honesty that is about ensuring truth-telling about the real history of this place is at the forefront of my stories, and also unpacking the truth about myself (the inner work we all do). My path within sobriety is very much like meeting your makers and all of these things combined led to this show.”

As for the ambitious idea of attempting to construct a Super Bowl-style halftime show inside a theatre? “A few years I used to listen to my favourite Super Bowl half-time shows on my front porch and imagine that I was the one performing…but inside a theatre,” she said. “That version of me played a role in dreaming this work into being. As weird as that ‘fantasy’ was at the time!”

The show comes with its own soundtrack of all-new music, Meet Your Maker – The Era’s Soundtrack, which can be found on Spotify. 

“I have worked with original music in shows before but it was not me having to sing them!” Alethea revealed. “It was a wonderful learning experience to go through the process of recording and releasing music – especially as I have made other actors do this. I have learnt a lot and will be the biggest advocate for practice and singing lessons moving forward.”

To create this cornucopia of Blak-pop bangers Alethea collaborated with First Nations artists including Moss, Mark Munk Ross, Loki Liddle, Sue Ray, Reece Bowden and Katina Olsen amongst others.

“I love working with my community, and this project has been full of so many deadly mob,” she said. “Everyone has brought their own strengths to the project which is why it really is looking and sounding so incredible… the yarns I have had with them all, have meant as much to me as the work we have created together.”

Alethea has described Meet Your Maker as not based on a true story but a true feeling. 

“It is about the feelings that arise when you look for the truth… about the real history of this place…and about yourself,” she said. “Meet Your Maker is a fictional fantasy but every emotion in the work is drawn from my own experiences trying to understand myself and my place in the world as an Indigenous storyteller.”

“I hope my community feel loved, seen and heard. And I hope wider audiences further their understanding of truth – about the ways colonisation intersects with the media we consume.

“Above all I hope people enjoy the rollercoaster of emotions – it’s savage, funny and also deeply moving.”

Meet Your Maker will be running at the Brisbane Powerhouse from August 31 to September 7.  

brisbanefestival.com.au