Double Thrills: Alex Franz Zehetbauer

Alex Franz Zehetbauer / Femme Castratrice / Craig Manson / Jess Paris

This spring //BUZZCUT// Double Thrills brings a programme of Queer Experimental Performance to Scotland; presented by international artists shaping the landscape of Live Art, alongside new work by Scottish artists!

You can check out our full programme here.

In this night of queer cabaret Alex Franz Zehetbauer transports you to a fantastical piano bar in, An Evening with.

Ear-worm melodies and trickster humour keeps audiences teetering between the earnest and absurd, as Zehetbauer’s repertoire traverses eclectic moods and registers – from poetic lullaby to folk songs and pop renditions.

An Evening with, explores the cultural meanings, roles, and impacts of songs; creating an enchanted atmosphere as they are stretched into various choreographic postures. With music breaking forth from the body, the throat, the chest, and sometimes the leathery fingers of an absurd “tabi” boot, a sense of closeness at once strange and familiar takes shape amongst the gathered guests.

Craig Manson - Bunny

Craig Manson offers a darkly comic new take on the tropes of the ‘critically acclaimed solo show’. Combining live art and musical theatre it tells the story of an unnamed protagonist who’s relegated to a background extra in his own life. He finds solace in creating the persona of Bunny, an aspiring theatre starlet – and serial killer cutting her way through the talent pool of Scotland to increase her chances. But once she does away with the country’s performance artists, emerging theatre companies, and even the whole of Creative Scotland, she finds herself alone and no closer to achieving her dreams. Maybe it’s something to do with her after all?

In this DIY cabaret show, Bunny tells, yells, and sings her story against the backdrop of a collapsing arts industry.

Femme Castratrice

Femme Castratrice will perform, details TBA.

Jess Paris - GRIPPED

A pop star is born in Jess Paris’s GRIPPED.

Developed from her 2024 work GRIP ; GRIPPED combines film, live looping, and stripped-back world building to immerse you in tantalising 00s stardom. As she explores questions of power, body image, sexuality, power and performance.

About the artists

Alex Franz Zehetbauer (*1990 in Brooklyn) creates performances, sonic choreographies, and songs. Critics have called him: an angel, a swamp monster, and a red-eyed demon. He studied vocal performance, choreography, acting and composition at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the International Theater Workshop in Amsterdam. Alex has collaborated with artists such as Phillip Gehmacher, Jen Rosenblit, Taylor Mac, Marta Navaridas and Alix Eynaudi. Recent performances include: C-Mine, Genk, Belgium (2024); Austrian Pavillion / Gwangju Bienniale, South Korea (2024); Warehouse9, Copenhagen, Denmark (2024); Gessneralle Zürich, Switzerland (2024); Theater Rampe, Stuttgart, Germany (2024); Les Urbaines, Lausanne, Switzerland (2023); Wien Modern / brut Wien, Austria (2023); The Brick Theater, Brooklyn, NY (2023); fjk3 – Contemporary Art Space, Vienna, Austria (2023); FFT Düsseldorf, Germany (2023); Theater aan Zee, Oostende, Belgium (2022); La Strada Graz, Austria (2022); Šiauliai Art Gallery, Lithuania (2021) among others. www.alexfranzzehetbauer.com / @afranzz

Craig Manson is an artist who works across theatre, live art and cabaret performance. His performances are joyful, surreal and queer, often using humour to poke fun at the structures we create for ourselves. His work has been featured in Made in Scotland, Dance International Glasgow, The Southbank Centre and Actoral Festival.

Chao-Ying Rao (Femme Castratrice) is an East Asian visual artist based in Glasgow who primarily works with performance, photography, and moving image. Her practice involves negotiating the complexities around objectification and narcissism, often using humour to disarm and charm the viewer. Rao is interested in the absurdity of desire, excessive consumption, racial and bodily fetishisation, and abject femininity. Her background in dance comes from years of working as a stripper in Edinburgh and London. Rao is inspired by vintage Playboy centrefolds and misogynistic pop culture truisms. Working with Kristeva’s theory of abjection and Creed’s monstrous feminine, her work plays with that very fine line between attraction and repulsion.

Jess Paris is a London born artist creating dance, film, and live performances. She has worked across Glasgow as a choreographer, director, producer and movement director. Her work is informed by her experiences as a pole dancer and a childhood growing up with 2000s MTV and her practice utilises from commercial and pop semiotics to examine the politics of performer / audience / client relationships.

Credits and Support

Alex Franz Zehetbauer: An Evening with

Concept, songs, and performance Alex Franz Zehetbauer, Text collaboration Jen Rosenblit, Dez Miller. Dramaturgical advice Jen Rosenblit, Outside ear & recording Christian Schröder, Performance doula Claire Lefèvre, Piano coaching Han-Gyeol Lie, Light design Joe Albrecht, Outside eye Liv Schellander, Documentation Ipek Hamzaoglu, Production management mollusca productions A co-production by Verein Wilhelmina and brut Wien/FREISCHWIMMEN Network in collaboration with Wien Modern.

With the kind support of the City of Vienna’s Department of Cultural Affairs, FREISCHWIMMEN, die Produktionsplattform für Performance und Theater, represented by brut Wien, FFT Düsseldorf, Gessnerallee Zurich, HochX Theater und Live Art Munich, LOFFT – DAS THEATER Leipzig, Schwankhalle Bremen, SOPHIENSÆLE Berlin and Theater Rampe Stuttgart, managed by SOPHIENSÆLE GmbH. FREISCHWIMMEN is funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media via the „Verbindungen fördern“ programme of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste e.V. FREISCHWIMMEN is further supported by Pro Helvetia, Schweizer Kulturstiftung and the Canton of Zurich’s Department of Cultural Affairs, supported by German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, The Brick Theater, ACT OUT, a project of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs, and Kunstraum Eindorf.

This presentation is supported by European Festival Fund for Emerging Artists & Austrian Cultural Forum.