With the support of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), producer Tim Lawson and creative producer Simon Painter have launched their new world premiere production of Cirque Alice in Brisbane.
Lawson and Painter have been creating world tours of spectacular shows for many years including: The Illusionists, Circus 1903 and Le Noir! The mixture of acrobatic performance, wrapped up in the high-octane colour and movement of a quality musical production offers a joyous and enthralling evening of entertainment.
Based on Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Cirque Alice reimages the story with circus performers. While missing out on some characters, and making cursory references to others, on the whole the narrative has been cleverly woven into a sometimes-chaotic mishmash of the original. Dance and comic interludes are interwoven between the circus acts.
In the title role of Alice, lyric soprano Layla Schillert sings classical arias, lending a gravitas to the proceedings. While having little to do with Carroll’s story, her opening ‘Flower Duet’ from Delibes’ Lakmé is quite ravishing, as is her finale of ‘Ave Maria’.
Darius Thompson’s White Rabbit plays an excellent violin that opens the show. Alice quickly follows after her aria and reappears having grown several metres, as she is flown skywards. A magical start, though the story deviates after this. Even so, both the White Rabbit and Alice appear and reappear throughout, linking visual narrative and contributing the live music component of the work.
Jeff Hobson, a very funny comic magician, is the Mad Hatter, appearing numerous times. He helps break up the circus acts with his routine of picking willing victims from the audience to help him with his various tricks, with hilarious results.
The circus acts range from Alexandre Lane who spins on a huge Cyr wheel as the March Hare to Oleg Tatarynov’s Snap-Dragonfly, fluttering high above the stage on an aerial pole. William Estuart Mena Gonzales’ Dormouse balances atop a range of cylinders and teacups in death-defying tricks, while Maria Sarach’s powerful Queen of Hearts hand-balances, while contorting her body on a twisted pole.
Four Mongolian contortionists slither and slide, wrapping themselves around each other into amazing shapes as the Caterpillar to the music of Swan Lake. Aerialists, Flamingos Mariia Romanenko and Oleksandr Vakar, use mouth straps to connect one artist to the next while hanging in mid-air. And roller-skating duo, the Royals Anastasiia Vashenko and Leandro Zeferino show great strength in swings and velocity.
Two sets of male acrobats perform some sensational, heart-stopping feats. As Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Tomas Teka Alemu and Tamrat Yemane Ayalew’s acrobatics involve one artist being thrown and turned on the other’s feet at incredible speed. Meanwhile Red and White Knights, the Ramadhani Brothers (Fadhili Ramadhani Rashidi and Ibrahim Jobu Mwaimise) demonstrate the art of head balancing, while walking up and down stairs. Some breath-holding moments.
The production values for the show are flawless, even more so as it is staged where there is little wing or backstage space. A cleverly designed central dais is raised above the stage, from where most of the circus acts emanate. Cabaret-styled tables on stage to accommodate some audience seating replicates a feeling of the Big Top, while a huge lighting rig with constantly changing lights is effectively and atmospherically utilised.
Musically, the thoughtfully collated soundtrack uses both contemporary and classical music remixes, assisted by the additional use of the organ.
Carefully choreographed by Danes Bates and with stunning costuming by Angela Aaron, the dancers and circus artists look and move well in the limited space available, with no sense of crowding.
A Las Vegas-styled extravaganza, equally suited to a casino auditorium as to the concert stage, Cirque Alice offers audiences an enjoyable evening of whimsy, fantasy and fun, and is a fine antidote to the current state of world. You come away humming well-known tunes, while revelling in the skills and talents of these incredible performers and relishing the production values of fabulous costumes, glorious lighting and a powerful musical score. It is a show not to be missed.
Cirque Alice presented by TML Enterprises and Painter Productions in collaboration with QPAC
Concert Hall, QPAC
Producer: Tim Lawson
Creative Producer: Simon Painter
Creative Directors: Ash Jacks, Kirsty Painter
Choreographer: Dane Bates
Music Arrangements: Martin Raabe-Olsen and Marius Christiansen
Costume Designer: Angela Aaron
Cast/cirus acts: Layla Schillert), Jeff Hobson, Darius Thompson, Tomas Teka Alemu and Tamrat Yemane Ayalew, Baigalmaa Chuluun, Bayarmaa Ganbat, Dolgorsuren Ganbold and Tsetseglen Odgerel, Alexandre Lane, Oleg Tatarynov, Fadhili Ramadhani Rashidi and Ibrahim Jobu Mwaimise, William Estuart Mena Gonzales, Maria Sarach, Mariia Romanenko and Oleksandr Vakar, Anastasiia Vashenko and Leandro Zeferino
Dancers: Abby Lennon, Charlee Danilczak, Gabriel Herrera, Kaylee Smith and Lachlan Greenland
Cirque Alice will be performed until 22 April 2025.
