I was equal parts anxious and excited about what would assault my senses at A Year Without Summer. In 2023, international performance artist Florentina Holzinger hung ballerinas from meat hooks at the Arts Centre. I heard reports a man in the audience passed out and I’ve had FOMO ever since. Holizinger latest production at Melbourne’s RISING festival, ‘A Year Without Summer,’ was one I refused miss.
The content warnings alone were enough to convince me to clear my calendar and open my mind. “Self-injuring acts, full nudity, blood & other simulated bodily fluids, needles, strobe lights, loud music/dynamic soundtrack, smoking, haze, explicit depictions or descriptions of physical or sexual acts.” Holizinger delivered.
The show is 2 hours 15 minutes show with no interval. Hold on. Once you’re pulled into Holizinger’s macabre uncanny world, you’re not getting out. 
The show is structured around the themes of Life, Death, Science & Medicine.
‘Life’ begins with an orgy and a giant inflated disembodied torso. Nearly two dozen women perform intensely intimate acts nude, inhabiting their own skin apologetically. The cast features a wide range of ages, body types and abilities; genitals are on full display and none of it is for the male gaze. 
The show progresses with a mixture of body horror, songs, laughter, mental illness, disability, and technology, through to end of life. To my right, a few men laughed nervously, to my left a cluster of friends cheered enthusiastically. On both sides, women burst into laughter at a ‘hysterical’ punchline from a Freudian parody. At the end: a standing ovation from a sold-out auditorium.
A Year Without Summer is a multi-story, unsettling spectacle. It’s expertly crafted performance art that exceeds simplistic shock value. The sexual and grotesque scenes go on for longer than expected. At one point I felt physically nausea. It’s body horror dialled up to ten and seeing it staged live is all the more confronting. I’m confident at one point or another everyone in the audience will see something that makes them uncomfortable. What that ‘something’ is may vary from person to person, but Holzinger gives us plenty to choose from. (The show opens with a reference to Frankenstein and ghost stories from a year of wide-spread famine and death.)
It’s unlike anything I’ve seen at the Arts Centre; and I can’t fathom the risk analysis to produce this show. Go. Now.
– Jenny S
Jenny Schmidt is an event aficionado. When she’s not attending live theatre, you can find her sampling the latest craft beer or sipping a creative cocktail.
A Year Without Summer runs 28-31 May at The Arts Centre Melbourne. Run time 2 hours 15 minutes, no interval. Book tickets now.
This production is part of Melbourne’s RISING festival, running 27 May – 8 June 2026.
