Produced and Directed by Michael Boyd – Choreographed by Matt
Downing
Costume design by Cathie Costello - Sound design by Tom
Hawkins
Stage Management by Journey Malone - Lighting and Technical
Manager: Jeremy Dhen
Canberra Theatre 10th & 11th
January 2025.
Performance on 10th January reviewed by BILL
STEPHENS.
 |
| Michael Boyd in "Circus of Illusion" |
Michael Boyd has built a strong following in Canberra for his superbly presented variety shows, outstanding examples of which were his “Cabaret de Paree” with Rhonda Burchmore in 2023 and his lavish, “The Christmas Spectacular” presented in Canberra just last month.
This show featured a topline cast, headed by Prinnie
Stevens, eight excellent dancers, Hula-Hoop extraordinalist, Aleisha Manion, and
Boyd himself performing a selection of his most mind-boggling illusions.
This is the third Canberra season of his “Circus of
Illusion”, which although slickly presented, was for this visit a much more
stripped back version than those of its 2022 and 2023 iterations.
Again Boyd repeated his illusions, still amazing, but mostly
the same ones that had dazzled and intrigued only a month earlier. Similarly, Aleisha
Manion repeated the two elegant and encore-worthy routines she had performed in
the December extravaganza.
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| Eleisha Manion performing on her lollipop lyra. |
Amiable Canberra juggler and clown, Idris Stanbury returned to host this program, as he had done in 2023, spent the first 10 minutes of the show warming up the audience by instructing them in the correct responses to his signals as to how to show appreciation for the efforts of the specialty artists, and feigning disappointment when the audience failed to get the point of his amusing asides, before surprising them with a hair-raising display of juggling expertise involving a chain-saw and two lethal looking swords.
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| Sascha Williams on rola bola. |
Britain’s Got Talent finalist, Sascha Williams also returned
from 2023 with his nerve-wracking rola bola routine which proved to be every
bit as dangerous as it looked.
Two lithe, lovely and accomplished dancers, Tegan and Allie,
did their best to create spectacle on the vast Canberra Theatre stage,
executing Matt Downing’s inventive choreography with vivacity and charm. However,
despite their best efforts, and some spectacular costumes by Cathie Costello
and Jeremy Dhen’s colourful lighting, these routines lost much of their impact
when performed by just two dancers rather than eight.
Tegan and Allie were also kept busy, along with stage
manager, Journey Malone, assisting Boyd mystify and intrigue with his lavish
illusions.
 |
| Idris Stanbury demonstrates his juggling prowess |
Two young audience volunteers kept the audience enthralled during the inevitable but well-managed audience-participation sequences. Five-year-old Sienna, charmed with her unselfconscious fascination as she assisted Boyd with a levitating table, and nine year old Luke, who expressed his ambition to become a magician, picked up some tricks-of- the-trade, assisting Idris Stanbury with some tricky double-handed juggling.
“Circus of Illusion”, even in this stripped-back version, still
provided a welcome couple of hours of meticulously presented quality variety
entertainment, particularly for those experiencing Boyd’s spectacular illusions,
and world-class specialty acts for the first time.
However those attracted by his lavish large-scale revues, the
latest of which was seen in Canberra only a month ago, may have experienced a
sense of deja vu at the inclusion of so much material seen so recently in that show.
