Created by Joel Bray, Arts House, Performance Space Live Works, Brisbane Festival, 2019, Arts Centre Melbourne, 2020

Joel has daddy issues.

And his insatiable cravings for father figures always leave him wanting more.

Don’t tell his dentist, but Joel Bray’s cravings are getting out of hand. He’s looking to live the sweet life, yet the sugar hits of nostalgia and fantasy are all too short-lived, and behind it all there’s a need that can never be sated.

Daddy is the latest work from one of the most electric new figures in Australian dance. Here he probes one of the paradoxes of our age: when so much is on offer, why are we left so hungry?

From the sugar-coated idyll of childhood reminiscence to the glazed excesses of queer adulthood, Joel’s story proves that a sweet tooth is a dangerous thing. Short-lived highs give way to the inevitable comedowns before the cycle begins all over again. And like a kid in a candy store, an imperial hunger for Aboriginal Australia consumes all it encounters – land, women and children – like fistfuls of sugar.

Hilarious, provocative and heartfelt, this world premiere tickles the nerve endings of desire while prodding the cavities left by colonisation. Featuring Joel Bray’s trademark confection of conversation, dance and all-you-can-eat audience participation, Daddy is a sweet feast with a deadly aftertaste.

Daddy was first performed at Arts House as part of the 2019 Yirramboi Festival. It sold out before it even opened. Daddy had three return seasons including: Brisbane Festival, Liveworks Performance Space, and Arts Centre Melbourne. Daddy returned to stages in 2021 as part of Darwin Festival and in 2022 for Perth Festival and Chill Out Festival. It returned in 2023 as part of World Pride at Carriageworks.

Daddy went on to be nominated for three Green Room Awards including Best Production, Best Performer and Best Visual Design. It won Best Production.

Creator and Performer: Joel Bray
Set & Costume: James Lew
Composition & Sound Design: Naretha Williams
Lighting Design: Katie Sfetkidis
Director: Stephen Nicolazzo
Collaborating Choreographer: Niharika Senapati
Dramaturgy: SJ Norman
Producer: Josh Wright

★★★★1/2 “Daddy echoes with the grandeur of the history of the world- black, white, and candy floss pink...It is visually stunning (not a surprise as it is directed by Nicolazzo) and dynamic, multilayered, hopefully this is a show that will come back again and again” What Did She Think?

★★★★1/2 “A brilliant and devastating show…superbly crafted…one-of-a-kind and incredible. It demands to be seen” Cameron Colwell, The Music

★★★★ “Does performance art get more powerful and intimate than Joel Bray's Daddy? A soul-baring erotic odyssey matched by a deeply personal, and intensely political, exploration of gay and Aboriginal identities.” Cameron Woodhead, The Age

★★★★ “Bray’s identity is deeply shaped by the fates of Aboriginal Australia...He embodies the double loss that is so exemplary of our First Nations, yet so poorly understood” Jana Perkovic, The Age