The best events to see at Rising festival

Love a sweeping family saga? Western Sydney-based playwright S Shakthidharan's epic, five-star play, co-written with Belvoir St Theatre artistic director Eamon Flack, has been a long time coming, but finally enjoys its much-anticipated Melbourne debut at the Union Theatre, care of Rising. Spanning decades and collapsing the distance between the NSW capital and Colombo, Sri Lanka, this masterpiece featuring 19 performers playing 50 characters will envelop you. Read more here.

It's been a grim year for music festivals in Australia, with several major players falling by the wayside. Rising rides to the rescue, throwing a day-long block party in and around Melbourne Town Hall. British rockers Bar Italia, named after London's Soho stalwart late-night cafe, pop their Melbourne cherry, and you can also catch the likes of Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), Indian icon Asha Puthli and Melbourne's David Lynch-inspired sadcore outfit HTRK. Read more here.

Chunky Move, the shakers of Melbourne's contemporary dance scene, transform the Immigration Museum's already impressive Long Room into a free-flowing space, massaged by a giant inflatable artwork. Delhi-born, Melbourne-based dancer and choreographer Samakshi Sidhu joins theatrically influenced performer Enzo Nazario in a dance through this mesmerically shifting space that's bound to draw you into its time-bending rhythms. Read more here.

Indulge your dark side with Doug Bradley's nightmarish Pinhead and the latex-loving interdimensional sadomasochists, the Cenobites, as horror novelist-turned-filmmaker Clive Barker's Hellraiser becomes the latest classic movie screened with a live, reimagined score. Chicago's finest EBM artist, Hieroglyphic Being, raises electro hell's bells alongside Australian audio-visual artist Robin Fox and his laser show at the Melbourne Town Hall. Read more here.

Papunya-based Warumpi Band made musical waves in 1983 when they released their debut single 'Jailanguru Pakarnu', the first time a rock and roll hit was sung entirely in an Aboriginal language, Luritja. Ilbijerri Theatre Company honours that remarkable achievement with this joyous musical, named after their 1985 album, narrated by founding member Sammy Tjapanangka Butcher. His daughter Anyupa co-directs with irrepressible Rachel Mazza. Read more here. 

If risking cataclysmic rib injury through shriek-laughing so hard the snot flies out of your nostrils is your bag, don't miss your second chance to catch Pony Cam's bonkers five-star mayhem of a Fringe show. Four performers mounted on gym treadmills installed at the Malthouse and way, way too many tasks to complete in just under an hour, from the mundane to the manic, ensures whatever happens next, it's going to get messy. Read more here.

Miss First Nations: Supreme Queen-winner Cerulean (a Meriam and Erub Kebi Le Torres Strait superstar), colliding with the mighty Stone Motherless Cold (an Arrernte avatar of excellence), in this sci-fi-tinged drag showdown assisted by A Daylight Connection collective will surely split the multiverse? They exude far too much fabulousness to contain within the Melbourne Town Hall, and that's before you factor in a galaxy of special guests. Read more here.

Call us perverse, but we dig the specific theatrical subgenre of dinner parties gone wild, which is why we're recommending New York-based illusionist and spoken word artist Geoff Sobelle's variation on the theme. Inviting Rising audiences to take a seat at a grand banquet table perched under a crystal chandelier hung at the Southbank Theatre, your choices could lead anywhere except a fine dining experience in this absurdist feast. Read more here.

If you agree the marketing for way too many club nights represents a limiting idea of which bodies are beautiful, then the inclusively intersectional joy of this disability-focused party is all about smashing that crap. Founded by performance artist Riana Head-Toussaint, aka DJ Aquenta, she welcomes kindred spirits in UK-based Aisha Mirza and LA-based Bae Bae to the decks of this Rising edition hosted at Substation. It'll open and close chill if you favour low key. Read more here.

As Australia reckons with a crisis of male violence against women, this nightmarish vision from Brazilian artist Carolina Bianchi tackles the horror head-on. Staged at the Malthouse, it's a fierce tribute to murdered peace activist Pippa Bacca, forcing us to stare into the abyss. Taking a substance made to emulate the date rape drug dubbed 'Goodnight Cinderella' during the show, Bianchi's prone body will fall to the mercy of her dance troupe in a show that's as vital as it is startling. Read more here.