It takes a lot of balls to do a circus show that’s solely made up of juggling. A lot of balls. And quite a few of those smallish flat rings too. Performed by the aptly named Throw Catch Collective, Escalate is a Melbourne Fringe Festival show in which the content is pared down to the absolute basics, but the production elements are ramped up to enhance the whole.
The Collective currently comprises Byron Hutton, Richard Sullivan and Samuel Kreusler, with the former pair taking on the lion’s share of the juggling, while Kreusler acts as facilitator and even a glorified ball boy at times, but takes things to a different plane with some sublime classical guitar playing.
We’ve all seen jugglers before and, no doubt, we’ve all seen jugglers who can use all manner of props and toys to juggle with. Or even other bodies. But how often do you see a juggling routine in which a classical guitar is being played concurrently and is included in the routine? And that doesn’t mean we have priceless Herman Hausers flying through the air; rather that as Kreusler strums, picks and frets, he’s also alternating hands, so that one is free to catch a perfectly timed ball, send it on to Hutton or Sullivan, while never missing a note.
It’s all absolute precision stuff – like the best juggling is – but as Sullivan and Hutton weave around each other’s bodies, sharing the juggling, coming together and coming apart, all you can think of in the audience is how many weeks, months, years did it take them to perfect this?
On the night this reviewer attended there was the odd dropped ball or ring, but it almost felt as if this could be a deliberate inclusion – as if to remind the audience ‘we’re actually human, this is very difficult to get right and we’ve worked so, so hard to reach this level of skill and synchronise our timing’. Because on the whole, the performance is so slick, so mechanical almost, that an audience could potentially become rather blasé about the dexterity on display.
It’s that thing Thomas Hardy described as the “touch of the imperfect on the would-be perfect” giving it “the sweetness … the humanity”.
And it’s not only Kreusler’s guitar that distinguishes this production – the rest of the sound design is terrific too, soaring and throbbing, or stopping to let the performers take over, utilising a set of juggling skittles as percussion with split second timing. There’s also the exhilarating lighting design, which spotlights the juggling rings to tremendous effect and elsewhere complements the onstage action and placement of the props perfectly.
On the evening this reviewer attended, for a show in which the sound is so intrinsic and so cleverly designed, however, it was quite unfortunate that a music gig elsewhere in the precinct often bled through the walls of the performance space, overwhelming the production’s own sound and distracting from the proceedings.
Read: Performance review: FUTURE, Trades Hall
And then, returning to the top of this review, and the chutzpah required to make an entire show that is all and only about juggling… while it’s certainly true that Hutton, Sullivan and Kreusler are a tremendously talented trio and this piece is a testament to their skill and polish, about three-quarters of the way through some in the audience may start to feel how much juggling is too much juggling? No matter how many balls it takes.
Escalate
By Throw Catch Collective
Composer:Â Samuel Kreusler
Lighting Designer:Â Nick Moloney
Production Designer:Â Mason Browne
Mentor:Â Sean Gandini
Juggling Director:Â Joe Fisher
Producer:Â Lauren Eisinger
Performers:Â Byron Hutton, Richard Sullivan, Samuel Kreusler
Escalate will be performed at Circus Oz HQ, 35 Johnston Street, Collingwood, Victoria as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival until Sunday 20 October.
