The Umbilical Brothers: The Distraction at Queensland Performing Arts Centre

The Umbilicals take the energy of live performance and the spectacle of cinema and smashes them together into a new show performed simultaneously on stage and the big screen. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen, and nothing they’ve ever done, and it will blow your mind way more literally than you are expecting. The Distraction: enabling your screen addiction.

The Umbilical Brothers are an international comedy phenomenon. Their unique mix of mind-bending comedy and back-breaking physicality has taken the world’s favourite Australian comedy duo to 40 countries – from stadiums supporting Robin Williams to stadiums supporting N’Sync.

Named as two of Entertainment Weekly’s 100 Most Creative People In Entertainment, they have appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, after James Brown at Woodstock ’99, and before the Queen of England. Their global gigs have included a year long off-Broadway run where they received raves from The New York Times and a New York Drama Desk nomination. Awards include a Helpmann for Comedy Performance of the Year, the Edinburgh Critics’ Choice Award, a couple of BAFTAs and Best Comedy at this year’s Adelaide Fringe Award for The Umbilical Brothers: The Distraction. Younger fans and stoners know them from The Upside Down Show, which they created with Sesame Workshop and won them an Emmy and a Logie.

They haven’t just broken the rules of theatre; they’ve invented a new theatrical multiverse. Unbelievable human performance meets special-effects wizardry. It feels so much like magic, you’ll want to burn them at the stake.