Then we see two girls on big trapeze swings doing acrobatics. The performance continues with the ‘child is innocence’ theme and places some further acrobatics and circus tricks around this idea. The acrobatics are accompanied by a three-piece music group of harp, cello and guitar who seem to favour endless riffs on Greensleeves (as in the Mr Whippy Van theme tune… little kids… geddit?) .
This Fringeworld performance sets itself the task of demonstrating ‘the presence and absence of creativity’ through the presentation of ‘alternative worlds’.
But the paucity of originality means it ends up demonstrating far more the latter, stymieing the potential of its stated ideas.
The ​show has a strong ideological framework: ‘We are all born creative however over time modern day society suppresses this natural instinct. The education system teaches us that uniformity, logic and structure are more valuable than creativity and this is later reinforced in our working lives. The economic system as a whole favours systemised, mechanical thinking and disservices those who try to break free from this.’
But this outline is not evident in the show we saw, which was simply a series of circus and aerial feats. After the initial trapeze swinging act, there were handstands on a series of boxes. In another trick the four performers (a conventionally symmetrical two males and two females) moved up and down a series of chairs. There was also acrobatics on silk ropes hanging from the ceiling.
The most outstanding performer was a solo trapeze swing from a girl in a silver lame pantsuit who showed real stage presence. Her counterpart on the male side plays the guitar and also did some cool tricks with fluorescent coloured globes that went spinning around on string that he foreshortened at moments to look like a spinning wheel.
However the female performer who was dressed to look like a little girl, and acted coy and silly when she was performing a balletic duet with her male partner, was just too insincere and self-conscious to watch for any length of time.
Each individual performer displayed ​technical skills, but the integration of their skills did not provide a compelling narrative of any kind. After such a wordy explanation, there was an expectation of some language or demonstration of ideas, but the whole performance was physical. A demonstration of skills is not the same as a story that the audience can see and relate to. The Creativity Project was not creative enough.
Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
The Creativity Project
Kaleido Company
Regal Theatre, Subiaco, James St, FringeWorld 2017
1-2 February 2017
