Circus Oz is a rough, raw, feisty and cheeky show of brilliant Aussie talent which appeals to a multi-generational audience. Naughty enough to be a thrill for the parents and cute enough for the kids to screech with laughter - which they did.
The group uses electronic and recorded, as well as live music, and gives some importance to visual design and staging. This wide-ranging perspective certainly lends considerable interest to its performances, but the results are mixed.
Swan Lake is a bold, dynamic and clever interpretation. Bourne throws in elements of jazz, modern dance, Latin (including an energetic paso doble set to Tchaikovsky’s Spanish Dance) as well as ballroom and folk.
With its somersaulting ‘acro-fairies’, a punch-up between leading ladies Hermia and Helena, and a completely manic Puck inclined to moon the audience at whim, this is one revved up, madcap production of what is arguably Shakepeare’s best-loved comedy.
The Spook was inspired by the true story of a young man recruited by ASIO in the 1960s and asked to masquerade as a communist whilst spying on his local party branch. However, as Reeves assures us in her program notes, The Spook is a totally fictional and sometimes ludicrous version of the story.
Nothing quite adds a sense of reality to a “night in the woods” like a diegetic thrum of real cicadas. At one point a chorus of kookaburras struck up, as if perfectly on cue to provide a fanfare for Titania’s entrance!
We become engrossed in the web of intricacy of this Chilton 'clique' as we are exposed to each boy's personalities and learn of their contribution to the group dynamic.
Absence(s) is a work that moves between worlds – physically, spatially and symbolically. We are taken, group by group, from the street outside the theatre to another space.
