Image by David Solm.
Behind the doors of the Spiegeltent at the Brisbane Festival resides a troupe of international performers delivering extraordinary circus skills accompanied by live music, making up this year’s cultural forecourt principal offering, Limbo.
This incredible production has been delivered by the same producers that brought Cantina to Brisbane’s Spiegeltent in 2011, and once again has the packed audience in rapture, greatly assisted by the intimate surrounds of this iconic venue.
New Yorker Sxip Shirley heads up the three-piece musical ensemble as composer and musical director, utilising a megaphone to release a soundscape supported by Grant Arthur on a sousaphpone and Mick Stuart on a plethora of instruments. The live music is an integral part of this performance, adding suspense and jauntiness while maintaining the party atmosphere rather than entering into the twee carnival sounds often associated with circus accompaniment.
Jonathan Nosan, the company’s contortionist, is not someone you’d want to challenge to a game of limbo, with seemingly impossible acrobatic prowess making this artist’s move from academia to acrobatics seem like an amazing, albeit rather unconventional, career change.
Heather Holliday’s prowess with both fire and an oversized glow stick is awe-inspiringly unnatural, to the level that some revellers in the front row found themselves covering their eyes in fear of disaster. I had similar fears for Danik Abishev while he utilised one hand to jump from post to post, his body in the air bending like plasticine. Each acrobat had their time in the spotlight making the most of the tiny stage, traversing it within touching distance of the audience. Mikael Bres’ skills on the Chinese pole were a standout for me, showing incredible ability while hurtling toward the ground, stopping with millimetres to spare through sheer strength.
Director Scott Maidment has delivered raw and dirty circus cabaret which doesn’t leave you wanting and cuts out all of the ridiculous pomp and ceremony often preceding tricks in such shows. Often in circus acts seem to drag with uncomfortably long crescendo lead-ups. When the cast of Limbo deliver a trick, contortion or remarkable stunt, they do so with a bang.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Limbo
Presented by Strut & Fret (Aus), Underbelly Productions (UK) and Southbank Centre (UK)
The Telstra Spiegeltent, Cultural Forecourt, South Bank
Brisbane Festival
www.brisbanefestival.com.au
5 – 27 September
