Rising Festival Melbourne: Brazilian artist Carolina Bianchi’s controversial theatre production to be funded by taxpayers

Confrontational content warning

An actress will be drugged senseless live on stage and have a confrontational act performed on her private parts in front of a live audience in a taxpayer-funded theater show about date rape.

Cadela Força Trilogy: The Bride and the Goodnight Cinderella – which has been called ‘ethically murky’ – will have its Australian premiere at Melbourne’s stateRising Festival in June.

The controversial two-and-a-half-hour show stars Brazilian artist and director Carolina Bianchi, who will talk about her experience of being drugged and sexually assaulted.

In the show, Bianchi swallows a cocktail of sedatives until she falls unconscious before a speculum and small camera are inserted into her.

A live video feed shown to the audience is a simulation of a post-rape forensic investigation.

Doctors will be on hand to ensure Binachi’s safety during each of the three shows at Southbank’s Malthouse Theatre.

Now in its third year, the Rising Festival is mostly funded by the State Government through Creative Victoria and Visit Victoria in addition to financial assistance from the City of Melbourne.

The festival’s website describes Binachi’s production as ‘a fever dream and the worst nightmare, beautiful and creepy’.

It also warned that parts of the performance may have a disturbing effect and are not recommended for audiences under the age of 18.

‘Contains detailed descriptions of violence against women, femicide, date-rape drugs, sexual assault and self-harm,’ a disclaimer states.

Attendees will shell out up to $79 per ticket to see the show, which a New York Times article last year described as ‘ethically murky’.

The reviewer described the simulated scene of a post-rape forensic examination as ‘deeply unnerving, knowing that the main character will have little or no memory of it, even though it lives on in the minds of hundreds of audience members’.

Festival organizers have assured that audiences will be repeatedly warned about what they are about to see.

Rising Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek hailed the show as ‘one of the most extraordinary shows I’ve seen in the last 10 years’.

“It took me days to process what I had seen,” Mr. Obarzanek Guardian Australia.

“What was so fascinating was Bianchi’s steadfastness, about her position that she has reached over a long period of time through research into her own experience, but (also) about violence against women.”

While University of Sydney professor Catharine Lumby applauded the production, she stated that all participants must be fully informed before and during the show about what they will see.

“There should be very careful warnings to people and precautions should be taken, especially for people who may have experienced sexual assault,” she said Herald Sun.

She hoped participants would go home thinking about ‘active consent’.

“We are dealing with an epidemic of domestic violence and sexual assault,” Professor Lumby added.

‘And art, including theater and performance, draws attention to these things.’

Binachi is not the only controversial headliner scheduled to perform at the annual event, described as a festival of new art, music and performance in the heart of Melbourne.

Western Sydney-based drill-rap group OneFour – who NSW Police allege are inciting gang violence with their music – are among the headline acts.

Launched in 2021, Rising was an amalgamation of White Night and the Melbourne International Arts Festival, both of which were discontinued as standalone events.

Rising was originally scheduled to launch a year earlier in 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic forced organizers to postpone.