How you deal with things that go wrong is the measure of a professional production. When there was a glitch on the VIP opening evening of Salamander, Brisbane Festival’s centrepiece, it was so skillfully handled that we thought it was part of the show.

And actually, it was part of the show, that night at least. From what I heard, someone got a bit wobbly during a rather intense strobe lighting episode. So, the dancers took a short breather while that was attended to and then dived back into what will be one of the great theatre experiences of your life, one that happens to be in a giant shed rather than a theatre.

Salamander (and yes there are salamanders in the show but they are not entirely amphibian) is a sci- fi dance, art and music happening and the jewel in Brisbane Festival artistic director Louise Bezzina’s crown for 2023. She met UK choreographer and director Maxine Doyle before the pandemic with a dream to put on a major work of hers in Brisbane, in this giant shed at Northshore, Hamilton. As you do.

I couldn’t think of a better setting for a dystopian, somewhat apocalyptic work. I do love an industrial wasteland and these warehouses at Northshore are terrific for edgy, avant-garde fare.

Two years ago, I saw one of the best shows I have ever seen in one. I’m referring to Red by Dancenorth Australia.

Salamander is similarly themed in some ways. Red was about what we are doing to the world and so is Salamander. Maxine Doyle was inspired by J.G. Ballard whose 1962 post-apocalyptic novel The Drowned World was prescient to say the least. He envisaged Earth as a place flooded by climate change where the inhabitants may be on the way to becoming amphibious creatures. Like salamanders.

Doyle was also inspired by the 2021 satirical climate politics film Don’t look Up. If you’ve seen the film you will see how it relates to act two of Salamander.

When I first heard about this show and had it explained to me I was interested but for a show like this you have to experience it. Talking about it only goes so far.

The cumulative experience of the one hour and forty minutes spent imbibing it is one of wonder and intrigue. Celebrated British contemporary artist Es Devlin created the sets which are incredible and like a giant art installation.

The first half of the show takes place in what appears to be a kind of Perspex maze floating on a small lake and the dancers of Australasian Dance Collective (ADC) come to life in their little pods and then play out their interactions with a world that is indeed drowning.

This amounts to a virtual performance art piece with incredible lighting by Ben Hughes and the intriguing music of Rachael Dease who is composer, sound designer and vocalist.

She’s a kind of David Lynchian muse in the vein of Chrysta Bell, a similarly siren-like singer. Chrysta Bell performed here at GOMA some years ago when Lynch was exhibiting here and she also starred at DARK MOFO in Hobart and it was noted that Salamander is the kind of work you might normally have to go to DARK MOFO to see.

But dark as Salamander is there is also humor. I thought the dancer’s wriggly salamander moves amusing and they had a bit of fun for a while splashing around in their pool.

I should say that it would be hard to imagine any other company of dancers who would quite get a work like this. ADC’s artistic director Amy Hollingsworth was once with Ballet Rambert in the UK, a groundbreaking dance outfit and her dancers seem perfectly attuned and are quite amazing. By the end they must be exhausted. Respect.

For the first half of Salamander, you will stand looking down or into the show from two levels.

This gives it more the atmosphere of what we used to call a “happening”. The second half takes place with everyone sitting in a semicircle around a stage that features a giant table where the dancers gather at the end of the world.

There’s some amazing athleticism in this segment and some great affects including curtains of rain. Rachael Dease, in her green evening gown, rules the stage in this part of the show, her haunting vocals enchanting and evocative.

The dancers are, by the way outfitted by Bruce McKinven, senior production designer for DARK MOFO. There’s that DARK MOFO connection again.

I don’t want to over explain it all though because, as I said, it is something that has to be experienced. Once you have seen it though you will want to talk about it all night.

I went home and immediately ordered J.G. Ballard’s novel The Drowned World online because I want to understand exactly how Maxine Doyle was inspired by it.

Doyle has been here from London throughout the creation of the show and she took a bow with the cast and others. She must be thrilled with how it has turned out.

Louise Bezzina would be pretty happy too. It’s a big show, technically complex and expensive to put on, I imagine, but this is the sort of production people go to festivals to see.

So, while some silly people went all the way to Burning Man in Nevada to get the atmosphere of a drowned world, we can get our kicks right here in Brisbane in a giant shed by the river at Northshore, Hamilton. Do not miss it.

Salamander is on at L Shed, Dock B, Northshore, Hamilton until September 24.

brisbanefestival.com.au