Circa – Everything you want from a Circus

Innovative Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz is a designer of dreams and Circa is the dream he dreams for us. If this performance were a photograph I would make accusations of the use of Photoshop, for it is beyond comprehension that human beings can move this way and still be alive.

A troupe of performers, who nonchalantly enact dangerous and unbelievable stunts mere metres before us, reduce the captivated audience to stifled gasps as they are unsure if clapping will cause a broken neck. The performers blend the methodical calculations of stuntmen, the sensual movement of dancers and the subtle comedy of clowns through a string of daring and delicious vignettes compiled from several other shows devised by this Brisbane based, internationally praised company.

Circa performers are like liquid; seven different acrobats and one united mass all at the same time swinging and writhing, seeming to have lost the restriction of bones but also possessing inhuman strength while their timing is written into their genetic code. This is circus stripped back to its origins – it’s dangerous and mysterious but it also subtly pokes fun at old circus conventions (see if you can spot the bearded lady). The stage is bare; it needs nothing more than these gorgeous bodies to enrapture the crowd and the magical lighting design and divine soundtrack round off a perfect night out. It’s long been the case where an invitation to see ‘circus’ has been mostly the ‘miss’ from a hit-and-miss opportunity but fear no more, Circa is all you want from circus and much, much more.