Directed by
Rob Tannion – Costumes designed by Laurel Frank
Production
designed by Michael Baxter –Musical Direction by Ania ReynoldsCanberra Theatre 16th – 18th August, 2018
Performance on 17th August reviewed by Bill Stephens
Now
celebrating its 40th year, Circus Oz is looking slicker and more
polished than ever. Its trademark combination of high energy entertainment
combined with political commentary remains intact, but this latest production
features a glamorous neon-bordered setting, spiffy new costumes by Laurel
Frank, and some remarkable oversized props that create a sense of spatial
disorientation while providing a whole new set of possibilities as circus
apparatus.
The
performance began with the cast posed as shop-store dummies before exploding
into a fast-moving tumbling routine, so quick that it was hard to know where to
look
Lachlan
Sukroo and Jake Silvestro, both former Canberrans, performed remarkable manoeuvres on an enormous safety pin doubling
as a pair of Chinese poles. Indeed there was a good deal more of Mr. Sukroo on
display than expected as he scampered around the stage looking for his errant
costume, sending the kids in the audience into paroxysms.
Giant
clothes pegs became springboards for the acrobats, huge model credit cards were
stacked on each other to provide a precarious tower for tattooed daredevil,
Mitch Jones, Tara Silcock balanced giant sized cocktail umbrellas in a huge
martini glass, and Rose Chalker McGann performed a graceful tissu act before
returning to sing a wry song about tolerance and diversity but “Not in My
Backyard”.
More chaos
for the kids when a cheeky sheepdog tried its best to herd a flock of un-cooperative
jumbucks through the auditorium, before joining a jolly snagman at a barbecue
to sing some rousing verses of “Worship My Webber” to a tune which sounded
remarkably like “Waltzing Matilda”.
Live music,
created onstage by Ania Reynolds and Jeremy Hopkins, accompanied an endless stream
of heart-stopping feats. Among them, a brave girl narrowly avoiding knives thrown
at her refrigerator, an acrobat performing with huge steam irons on his feet, another
juggling Red Head match boxes, and the pretty girl who balanced on revolving
sticks. The final scene involved the
whole cast performing all sorts of tricks hanging from a rope ladder suspended
high above the stage.
It may be 40
years old, and a bit more sophisticated, but Circus Oz still retains all the unique
vitality, energy, and originality that have made it famous the world over.
Photos by Rob Blackburn
