A ripped young man runs, trips, and falls in an ungainly flop into a circle of light. He recovers himself, manipulates body parts into a position where he can rise, then runs and falls again.
Thus begins Circa’s latest production – a self-titled work – at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane. Seven performers present selections from other Circa shows, The Space Between, by the light of stars that are no longer… and Furioso. The opening sequence typifies the work as a whole, with its slightly ironic abstraction of moments of physical stress, performed with grace.
Director Yaron Lifschitz marshals his ensemble into a steady stream of acro-dancing combinations, tumbling and lifting, stretching and moulding their bodies with a delicate air that belies the difficulty of what they are actually doing. This is certainly ‘stripped back circus’, with spectacle reduced to what the bodies provide, and colour reduced to the shifts in tone between the individual characteristics of the performers.
There is danger enough, with bodies warped and contorted, flung and tossed. Comic moments are slow to emerge, but they eventually do, and gradually the performers reveal more of their unique take on the skills on view.
Beautiful to watch and occasionally mildly amusing, I nevertheless was disappointed, waiting for that frisson that circus usually offers, when skill, beauty, danger and imagination explode into pure enchantment. There is a high degree of experimentation in the work, with unusual, even creepy ways of using someone else’s body as a stress test. Brittannie Portelli walking all over Nathan Boyle while wearing stilettos is certainly dangerous, requiring courage and skill from both performers, but the piece lacks a framing context to make it more than just an experiment in where to place the heels.
At times like this, when my judgment seems conflicted, I observe the audience behaviour around me. Sometimes an individual presentation calls forth a ripple of gentle applause from the audience. Only once is there a spontaneous outburst of unmitigated delight from the audience, and it is in response to the most traditional, least experimental scene in the whole production. Jessica Connell cavorts, teases and dominates her many hula hoops with such élan and clarity, she makes it look fresh, purposeful and easy. We all know how difficult it is, and it is this paradox, generously delivered out of the humanity of the performer, that is at the heart of circus – and Circa.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
CIRCA
Created By Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble: Nathan Boyle, Jessica Connell, Daniel Crisp, Casey Douglas, Brittannie Portelli, Kimberley Rossi and Billie Wilson-Coffey
Director: Yaron Lifschitz
Producer: Danielle Kellie
Lighting Design: Jason Organ
Tour Manager/Director: Diane Stern
Costume Design: Libby McDonnell
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Fortitude Valley
13 – 24 November
