Who takes care of the people who take care of everyone else? That is the question running through Cashless & Care-Free, Vulcana Circus's Queensland premiere, arriving at its Morningside Arts Hub for three nights from 20 to 22 November.
Care happens in kitchens, bedrooms, hospitals, living rooms and community centres. It is also work that can go unrecognised when it falls between paid employment, family expectation and personal devotion. Instead of treating the subject as a lecture, Vulcana's production puts the physical experience of care into the audience's path.
Not just a circus show: a journey through caring
The performance uses a promenade format, with audiences moving through indoor and outdoor spaces to discover connected scenes. Contemporary circus, physical theatre, poetry, movement, live cello, sound and lighting combine to explore the repetition, strength, exhaustion, tenderness and humour that caregiving can contain.
Rather than watching a single stage from a fixed seat, visitors encounter artists at close quarters. Co-directors Allie Wilde and Barbara Lowing use this proximity to bring the labour of caring out of the background and into focus.
A Brisbane ensemble spanning generations
Professional and emerging Queensland performers are joined by community collaborators, including Catalogue of Forgetting, an ensemble of older participants with lived experience of care. The production also brings in contributions from the Aqualina Youth Synchronised Swimming Club.
Live music comes from Brisbane cellist Dr Danielle Bentley. Angela Peita contributes original text, Winter Cyan designs sound and lighting, and Freddy Komp creates the captioning and video design. Together, these elements give the performance a range of voices, ages and perspectives.
Why the story matters
Care can be a profession, a family responsibility or something unexpectedly taken on in a moment of need. Much of it is essential, yet it is not consistently valued, paid or seen. Vulcana's creative team hopes audiences will reconsider the assumptions they carry about who is expected to provide care and what that care costs.
That question has particular resonance in a city supported by community organisations, disability support workers, parents, relatives, health professionals and volunteers. The show gives them an unusual cultural space in which their experience is not a side note but the central subject.
Accessibility and practical planning
Vulcana says the performance follows a wheelchair-accessible promenade route through the venue and nearby spaces, with surtitles at every performance and audio description at one performance. The Sunday 22 November performance will offer audio description via a Zoom meeting link; guests should bring a charged smartphone and earphones. Visitors who need seating or assistance between locations should select an Access Support ticket alongside their show ticket.
- Dates: Friday 20, Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November 2026.
- Time: 6:30–8:30 pm each evening.
- Venue: Vulcana Arts Hub, 420 Lytton Road, Morningside, Brisbane.
- Price: A$25–A$45, subject to ticket availability.
- Booking: Official Humanitix event page.
- Access enquiries: marketing@vulcana.org.au.