The world premiere of Holding Achilles, an awe-inspiring collaboration between Brisbane-based production house Dead Puppet Society and Sydney physical theatre company Legs On The Wall, opened to a standing ovation on the first night of Brisbane Festival 2022. An ambitious new work, Holding Achilles is epic in every sense of the word, presenting one of the Western canon’s oldest narratives and most well-known mythological heroes through a queer lens.

Stephen Madsen and Karl Richmond in Holding Achilles. Photo © Dean Hanson

Co-created by Dead Puppet Society’s David Morton and Legs On The Wall’s Joshua Thomson, who are also the Director and Movement Director respectively, Holding Achilles reinterprets The Iliad to focus on the titular hero’s relationship with his lover Patroclus. One of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer, along with The Odyssey, The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War and is considered the oldest work in the Western literary tradition.

Patroclus is brought to Achilles’ household in Phthia by Odysseus, having been exiled for accidentally killing another child. Focused single-mindedly on becoming a legend as his mother prophesised, Achilles is initially disdainful of Patroclus, but...