A Simple Space review | Gravity & Other Myths | Arts Centre Melbourne

Having seen circus troupe Gravity & Other Myths perform Backbone at Melbourne Festival last year, there was much anticipation about seeing their debut show, A Simple Space, during its return season to Melbourne. While both shows exhibiting incredible creativity and skill, it's the absence of any elaborate concept and design that were present in Backbone that allows A Simple Space to blow you away.

The show is stripped off most props, lighting effects and other elements with only a black mat roughly four metres wide and six metres deep set up on stage. With our attention ultimately glued towards the seven acrobats, they work with the only thing that's left: each other. They demonstrate surprising feats on what the human body is capable of, through a variety of acts. At one point, one performer jumps on bodies lying on the floor, the gap getting bigger and bigger with each successive jump. The highlight though, comes during the 'swinging' act with two people swinging another between them by their hands and feet. The speed and various ways in which this is executed is almost beyond comprehension.

Stripped back circus in "A Simple Space"

Earlier this year contemporary circus company Gravity and Other Myths (GOM) captivated audiences with Backbone, a brand new show presented as part of the Melbourne Festival. The show explored the theme of unity through strength and support with acts that left audiences awestruck by what the human body is capable. Those who missed it, missed out on an exceptionally original circus show, however there is no need to despair for the troupe return to Arts Centre Melbourne in January with A Simple Space. While the show differs greatly to Backbone, it still promises an exciting evening of circus by some of the country's top performers. 

"A Simple Space and Backbone could not look more dissimilar. Backbone can fill huge theatres with 12 performers, a plethora of unusual props, magical lighting states and a haunting score while A Simple Space uses a small stripped back stage, placed as close as possible to the audience with only the simplest of lights run onstage by the acrobats," GOM member Jascha Boyce tells me. "If Backbone is the 30 piece orchestra, A Simple Space is the acoustic soloist. However the rapport between the performers and the playful nature of our work are a constant in both. This style that GOM is known so well for is the string that ties all of our creative endeavours together."