1991

Circus Oz

Bonython Park, December, 1990.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

For twelve years Circus Oz have been running rings around everybody else’s idea of big tent entertainment. From their beginnings in New Circus and Soapbox circus they have brought together theatre and  rock and roll and created not just a hybrid but a new genus. While retaining a healthy regard for traditional circuit outfits such as Bullens, Ashtons and Circus Royale, Circus Oz also made big changes. For a start they sent all the animals home and concentrated on making their shows fast and funny. Arty and political, first they captured a young urban audience with a thirty-two week stint at Melbourne’s Last Laugh and then for over a decade have pitched their tent in almost every town and community in the nation.

Their work has built to such an extent that they are now influential internationally. Archaos would have just been a theory without Circus Oz, a fact underscored by the presence of Oz co-founder Tim Coldwell on the French company’s recent tour through Australia. Numerous other  Circus Oz alumni have featured widely – Sue Broadway and Stephen Kent with Ra Ra Zoo, Alan Clarke with Glenn Elston’s Botanic Midsummer Night’s Dream and Theresa Blake in various solo ventures. Under the continuing guidance of Coldwell, Ponch Hawkes, Laurel Frank and others, Circus Oz is now a national treasure.

When they were last in town for the 88 Festival, the company  were full of Bicentennial cheek and lots of new visual business devised  with guest director Emil Wolk. This time in Bonython Park the company is looking new again. Current director Gail Kelly and music person Julie McInnes have smoothed off even more of the edges than we have seen previously. Circus Oz has always made a virtue of being a bit rickety in the stunts and a bit ragged in the music department. Not any more.

Longtime admirers may hanker for the return of some of the old rough and tumble – a terrible irony for the company when they have worked so hard to bring higher technical standards and overall  polish to their work. They still open with some of the old jokey ineptitude when Natalie Dyball’s work experience Girl Guide comes out to warm us up with a few rounds of Kookaburra Sits In the Old Gum Tree but it soon gives way to a different kind of whimsy when Alan Clarke and Susie Dee appear as a distinctly triste pair of clowns setting up a picnic in rainstorm. Their courtship becomes a motif throughout the show. It’s elegantly done but surprisingly fey for Circus Oz who usually like to give the gender question a bit more of a serve than this. If they are going to go Gallic I’d rather they did it with chainsaws.

Although there is no shortage of physical excitement as the performers shin up poles and speed face floorwards while Julie McInnes’ heavily miked cello sounds like the whole of ELO. Others take to the slackwires belting various forms of tinpot percussion, while the archaotic Derek Ives does eggflips into a blender. Dressed up in Laurel Frank’s gumnut cossies the company also demonstrate that they have now raised the Chinese art of hoopdiving to new levels of precision since the last tour.

In the second half the musical pranking resumes with upside orchestras and a string quartet featuring Tim Coldwell on bowed trumpet and brass duet. Matthew Hughes climbs into a quiltcover for some trampoline dreaming  and Scott Grayland circumnavigates the canopy with some sensational aerial work on the cloudswing. He makes it seem so easy that it’s hard to look at. The sight of one of your own species soaring  through the air hanging by one ankle is likely to make you go a bit cosmic yourself. It also reminds you that the company have taken up even more of the glamour of the old circus- especially when six of them take to the trapeze dressed in white camisoles and britches.

Circus Oz are gluttons for innovation and this time round they are enjoying being mainstream. The production standards are the best yet with  clear sound, nifty rigging, smart lighting and tight musicianship. The strong political concerns from 88 have melted into a dew but you only need to count the number of women in the programme to see that Circus Oz is still an EO employer. I would have liked them to have thumped some of the old tubs a bit harder but these are interesting times and even Circus Oz has to bend a little. Make no mistake,  they are still magic. And in these unfunny times we have even more reason to hope that they keep on trucking.

“Oz, the Sequel” The Adelaide Review, No.84, January, 1991, p.27.