Tina Segner (otherwise known as Tina Machina) and Ken Fanning (also called Kennith Fall), who together form Tumble Circus, have been working together for more than 17 years. For the first six of those years, they were a couple. This is What We Do for a Living, their show at this year’s Perth Fringe World, is an intensely personal story, 17 years in the making, about what it’s like to fall in and out of love with the person you work, travel and perform with almost every day.
Considering the deeply personal subject matter, it would be easy to assume such a show would be self-indulgent and inaccessible. Fortunately in the case of This is What We Do for a Living, the opposite is true. This is a show about relationships, professional and personal, which Segner and Fanning acknowledge as a universal theme and treat playfully, vibrantly and humorously.
It would be quite possible to walk out of the show wondering whether or not it is fiction. The depth of their relationship, though, is deeply evident in the way Segner and Fanning interact, as is their depth of experience as performers. They are playful and comfortable, both with each other and with the audience. They flirt with audience members to make the other jealous, have fights with pillows, get upset, yell at one another in Swedish, and make each other laugh. In between all this are moments of great intimacy in which the audience remain involved.
The show is ostensibly circus, but it also features music, theatre, and comedy, and is strongly focused on narrative. This gives Segner and Fanning a range of channels through which to tell their story. The tricks can be messy at times, but most of this appears intentional and communicative, resulting in the show being beautifully expressive. The majority of their circus skills are performed together, until they are four hands, four legs, two bodies working in unison.
This is What We Do for a Living is a circus show that takes deeply ingrained conventions and does something fresh with them; a show that is as experimental as it is recognisable; a personal story told by two experienced performers who know how to bring an audience into their own little world.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Tumble Circus presents
This is What We Do for a Living
Written and performed by Tina Segner and Ken Manning
Lunar Circus Big Top, Northbridge
1 – 16 February
Fringe World 2013
www.fringeworld.com.au
25 January – 24 February
