Hip-hop musical One the Bear Aussie answer to Hamilton

Fresh off exposing rural Australia to her genre-bending feminist comedy show Australian Booty, Candy Bowers is coming back to the stage with a tale of a young hip-hop-loving bear grappling with issues of oppression and identity.

Candy Bowers and Ashleyrose Gilham (left) in the streets of Northcote.

Australia’s answer to Lin-Manuel Miranda is back with another show full of music, heavy messages and mischief.

Preston artist Candy Bowers’ show One the Bear is about a young bear living in a garbage dump in fear of hunters, dreaming of the days they could eat fresh meat and not stale fish fingers.

The whole show is in rhyme and features infectious beats along with full-stage light shows.

“It’s a freaking kick-ass show, what can I say,” Bowers said.

The show is written for families and children 11 years and older, but has messages anyone can relate to.

“It’s like very great fairytale, it’s cautionary but there’s a great relationship in it,” Bowers said.

Bowers uses the dystopian world to comment on issues such as identity and oppression, and hopes it will resonate with outsiders.

More than 2000 children are booked in to see the show at Arts Centre Melbourne, and it has been selected for VCE study in 2019.

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Co-starring San Diego native Ashleyrose Gilham, the performance has sets designed by street artist Jason Wing and costumes by award-winner Sarah Seahorse.

One the Bear runs from August 8 to 10.

For tickets, visit the Arts Centre Melbourne website.

@richardapearce