Defying the recent troubles of the live performance industry, a new venue is making a fiery entrance to the theatre scene.
Brisbane's The West End Electric is a 400-seat venue designed to be similar to a New York cabaret club.
Opening on Thursday with circus-cabaret show Limbo - The Return as part of the Brisbane Festival, its inaugural show features fire breathing and tightrope walking.
The venue, which has a counterpart in Sydney, has been specifically built for circus cabaret, comedy and music shows.
Both the West End Electric and Limbo - The Return are from Brisbane-born production house Strut & Fret.
It's also the outfit behind the The Spiegeltent, The Garden of Unearthly Delights, and global touring shows such as Blanc de Blanc.
The response from West End residents to the space has so far been overwhelming, said Strut & Fret creative director Scott Maidment.
The original Limbo toured to 17 countries - and its proponents promise pop star Madonna loved it so much, she saw it twice.
Some of the performers in the reimagined Limbo production have been in household-name shows on stage and screen - aerial chains performer Maria Moncheva in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, tightrope acrobat David Marco Pintado in Game of Thrones, and Hilton Denis in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis.
Singer, dancer and professional fire breather Clara Fable grew up in Brisbane, and says with the opening of West End Electric she will finally have the opportunity to show her family what she can do.
Limbo - The Return runs from Thursday to September 21.
