There were mirrorballs being strung up in the foyer, and a business-clad woman stalking the stage.
But on closer inspection, the woman was uncommonly tall and muscular, and her shoes way too fancy for standard office garb.
The Brief Boys are in the town, and they're about to air their dirty laundry.
The Brisbane-based collective, made up of acrobats, dancers, circus performers, drag queens and all-round naughty boys, are back in Canberra for the first time in 10 years.
Director and co-founder - and principal performer - Fez Fa'anana (drag name Shivannah), teetering in the aforementioned bright red suede platform heels, said the group's latest show, Dirty Laundry, had been a kind of therapy session for the ragtag group of performers, rejoicing after the lockdowns and uncertainty of the pandemic.
"We didn't want to wallow - and we'd run out of free counselling sessions from Centrelink," he quipped.
Far from sitting on their laurels, the group spent most of the pandemic honing their skills and nurturing the performance community around them. He said it was a far cry from the state of the group when they last visited the capital, during the centenary in 2013.
"It's a massive mistake that we made - we underestimated our ability to be good, resourceful business people," Fa'anana said of the group's early years.
"And I think when we actually just grabbed it by the short and curlies, and went 'we are going to be good at being artists, we are going to be good at running our business', we've actually gone from strength to strength."
In the lead-up to the pandemic, they partnered with Queensland-based management company Cluster Arts to build up a sustainable business. When COVID finally alighted on Canberra's shores and the arts world, along with everything else, shut down, they moved into an empty international student accommodation block, and gathered other artists around them.
"Just before the pandemic hit, we made some massive decisions," Fa'anana said. "I'm so thankful we did that, because organisations like our peak body Circus Oz shut down during the pandemic. And as an independent company, we were able to increase our capacity, and look after more artists. Somehow, we managed to navigate that as good business people."
The resulting shows - Briefs recently performed at World Pride in Sydney - are a raucous blend of acrobatic feats, drag shows and stripteases, the same as before but more refined.
Just kidding! There will likely be bare bums, just like last time.
- Briefs: Dirty Laundry are at the Playhouse, May 10-13. canberratheatrecentre.com.au
