A Simple Space review

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."

Backbone - Melbourne Festival review

Just when you think you've seen all that is possible in circus, along comes Backbone (by Adelaide company Gravity and Other Myths) that makes you think again. Presented as part of the Melbourne Festival, this show examines the need of strength and support from those around us, and a need to be able to come together as a unified front if we are to ever succeed in life wonderfully represented through some mind-boggling acrobatics.

There's a strong ritualistic aesthetic in Backbone as the performers pour buckets of sand early in the show onto the stage in varying patterns. They begin to move left to right across the floor in a repetitive rite of passage while executing captivating twists, flips, balances, jumps and turns that I've never witnessed before. These bodies are doing things that should be physically impossible and it's baffling as to how they keep their energy and momentum going for the entire 75 minutes. 

The strength, teamwork, flexibility and trust that lies within this troupe (Martin Schreiber, Lachlan Binns, Jascha Boyce, Jacob Randell, Lewie West, Lewis Rankin, Joanne Curry, Mieke Lizotte, Lachlan Harper, Jackson Manson) is clearly evident, as bodies are thrown from one side of the stage and caught on the other and three person human towers are constructed. Boyce's hypnotic suit and rock act has her fixing her sight out towards the audience, remaining expressionless throughout her act so even as she stands precariously on the shoulders of one performer and being passed to another, her eyes stay locked and she remains calm, knowing everything will go according to plan.

Papillon - Melbourne Fringe Festival review

Circus, cabaret, comedy and a dash of debauchery collide in Papillon. After touring nationally for almost four years, the show has returned to Melbourne for this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival and it definitely lives up to expectations.

Mark Graham's cheeky balancing act displays his strength, amazing sense of balance and the gymnastic skills required to pull this off - as well as his clothing. Later he performs a mesmerising aerial hoop act to a stunning cover of Radiohead's "Creep" sung by Minnie Andrews.

Joshua Phillips' two balancing acts - one on a ladder and then on a number of chairs - add to the suspense one feels when watching circus but his comical demeanour make it seem like he is in control the entire time.

Led my Musical Director, Matt Anderson, the music plays a vital role in this show, setting the mood for each act and evoking varying emotions from the audience. Amy Nightingale-Olsen's rubber ducky trapeze number is suitable paired to a Bert and Ernie themed electronic song, and her partnered juggling act with Anderson, involving some strong hand-eye coordination as well as being in total time with each other, is accompanied by some great swing style music. Similarly, Andrews' performance of Khia's "My Neck, My Back" is a perfect way to begin to bring the show to a close.

Papillon - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

Circus, cabaret and comedy all roll into one with through the enticing performance of Papillon. Touring nationally for almost four years and thrilling its audiences during that time, the show is set to return to Melbourne for this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival presenting a combination of crowd favourite routines and some new ones to entice us with.

"Papillon is an adults circus cabaret, so we take the best bits of circus and the best bits of cabaret and put it all together for just the grown ups. You can expect all types of top level circus skills, incredible singing and musicianship, some rude words and there might be the occasional lewd behaviour," Amy Nightingale-Olsen, an acrobat with the troupe, laughs. 

"The show is beautiful and glitzy, but it also has a raw honesty to it. We don't take ourselves too seriously and the show is about having fun. We're having a great time and we want the audience to have a great time with us," she tells me. "We mix the grace and beauty of elite circus disciplines with the grittiness of music and comedy that you're only aloud to get away with in an all adult show."

Of course, getting a group of talented circus performers to come together was no mean feat for producers Idris Stanton and Elena Kirschbaum. "El and Idris brought us all together. We all come from very different backgrounds and from all across the country and our pianist is from America," Nightingale-Olsen says. "They picked the best acrobats and musicians that would fit into the style of Papillon. We've all worked together for many years now and have a great rapport with each other. It's a fantastic dynamic."