Academy Award®-winning UK animation studio Aardman teams up with Australia’s Circa

Academy Award®-winning UK animation studio Aardman teams up with Australia’s Circa for a new live production of international hit Shaun The Sheep, coming to Melbourne’s Regent Theatre in April.

Circa Contemporary Circus, one of the world’s leading performance companies, has joined forces with multi-award-winning and globally renowned animation studio Aardman to create a new circus-theatre production for audiences of all ages, Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show.

Commencing at the Regent Theatre on Wednesday 14 April during the school holiday period, and direct from
its world premiere season in Brisbane, it promises an inventive and clever live show that the whole family can
enjoy on different levels.

Aardman’s signature Shaun the Sheep animation is combined with live performance from Circa, simultaneously blurring the lines between movement, dance, theatre and circus. A visual spectacle, Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show is also packed full of smart wit and outright hilarity.

Director Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble capture all the sophisticated and challenging elements of Circa’s extreme physicality while embracing the fun, humour and playfulness found in the world of Shaun the Sheep. Scenic Designer Dan Potra and Costume Designer Libby McDonnell have created a new world for Shaun and his flock to inhabit, seamlessly blending the dimensions of animation, stage, film and live acrobatics.

Circa Director Yaron Lifschitz commented, “Shaun the Sheep is a playful, rambunctious feast of humour, good spirits and the triumph of the little guy. The medium of circus is a perfect vehicle for bringing these qualities to the stage.

Melding the worlds of stage and screen and incorporating the extreme physicality of circus without losing the emotional depth and charm of the original is a major creative challenge – it’s the sort of thing we at Circa thrive on.”

Since 2004, from its base in Brisbane, Australia, Circa has toured the world – performing in 40 countries to over 1.5 million people. Its work is continually greeted with standing ovations, rave reviews and sold-out houses across six continents.

Melbourne audiences have flocked to Circa productions over the past decade, and Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show provides an opportunity to experience the company at the height of its inventiveness, collaborating with an extraordinary creative partner in Aardman.

Aardman is the Academy Award®-winning UK studio behind Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit, and of course, Shaun the Sheep. The tales of an enterprising Sheep named Shaun and his farmyard pals have been seen in 170 territories worldwide, and has spawned two critically celebrated feature films, a half-hour special and over 170 television episodes. With a second half-hour special in production, set for a 2021 winter release, Shaun the Sheep will continue to entertain a whole new generation of international fans.

Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show is produced by Shaun Comerford and Yaron Lifschitz with QPAC, Screen Queensland, Merrigong Theatre Company and Circa Contemporary Circus by special arrangement with Aardman Animations

Ticket Information:
Venue: Regent Theatre
Season: From 14 April 2021
Tickets: On sale from Friday 5 March at www.shaunthesheepcircus.com.au