Live Edge: Northern Rivers artists take over The Joinery
The Joinery will become a living canvas for bold new performance as NORPA presents Live Edge, a two-night celebration of Northern Rivers creativity.
Across Friday 13 and Saturday 14 November, physical theatre, performance art, circus, film, live music, dance and installation will spill through the vast former Hampton & Larsson Joinery in Lismore.
Audiences will journey through the industrial building, encountering original works created specifically for its scale, textures, history and unconventional spaces. The program explores ideas ranging from woodworking, labour and fatherhood to colonisation and the future of human connection.
Rather than beginning with a fixed program, NORPA invited Northern Rivers artists into the space and asked what they wanted to create there. The resulting event places artists at the centre of The Joinery’s evolution as a new creative home for the region.
“Our major works are often site-specific and place-based – taking inspiration from our region. Live Edge invites artists to respond to this incredible building in a way that will ignite its possibilities. Audiences can expect a wild, adventurous and fun night of entertainment at The Joinery,” NORPA Artistic Director Julian Louis said.
The 2026 program
Post-punk band LIVESTOCK presents Slow Violence, blending self-constructed instruments, Big Scrub field recordings and archival material to explore the legacy of Lismore’s timber industry.
Performance poetry ensemble Tongue and Groove brings together hip hop, spoken word, song and live beats in Windows/Doors, an exploration of relationships with fathers.
AOTA Creative’s Lachy Shelley and Leigh-Anne Vizer transform industrial structures into performance partners in I Wouldn’t Do That, a playful fusion of physical theatre, clowning and circus.
Frauke Huhn and Cye Wood bring pieces of The Joinery’s history to life through performance and surround sound in TreeLooping.
HOTMESS explores labour, community and technology in Cogs of Flesh and Blood.
Immortal Soil’s The Coriolis Effect is a towering living botanical sculpture featuring embedded light and sound by Nathan Jenkins.
Neville Cain and Kim McLean’s Cactus transforms swarf collected from a local machine shop into a meditation on Lismore’s manufacturing landscape.
Sue Connor and Rowena Kempton’s Remains Reimagined turns The Joinery’s timber racks and beams into a giant weaving frame, honouring the Wilsons River and a community rebuilding after adversity.
Tora Crockford and ensemble unite dance, physical theatre and the architecture of The Joinery.
Kirilly Dawn explores deep time and submergence through film, sculpture, installation and performance.
When: Friday 13 and Saturday 14 November 2026
Where: The Joinery, 6 Hampton Street, Lismore
Tickets: www.norpa.org.au
