A Collection of Circus | Cluster Arts + Independent Artists
Cluster Arts, the company behind Brisbane’s newest festival CIRCFest Meanjin, commissioned three independent artists to present snippets of their solo works in development. I think it is a great initiative to show audiences works in different stages, giving us a sneak peak at new Queensland works to come.
Image supplied.
Dale Woodbridge-Brown did a short, high energy baton performance, followed by a presentation about his work-in-development Camp Culture. Dale plans to share his stories about growing up as a gay Aboriginal boy through circus and sideshow, and dazzling costumes. His work sounds very joyful and interactive, and I believe it will certainly be loved by its target audience of school aged children and their parents. With plans to leave audiences with prompts to explore the First Nations history of their own communities, this show seems a perfect match for schools.
Image: Embellysh Photography.
Shannon Vitali’s showing of her solo work Pieces of Us had a more serious tone, dealing with her personal experiences around mental health through a combination of physical feats and narration. I am intrigued by the scene featuring Shannon turning off and on many different palm sized lights in acrobatic ways. This scene feels very intimate and special, and I am interested to see it developed further.
The most developed and polished work was Arc Circus’s new creation, Let Them Eat Cake, featuring multi-skilled circus performer Ela Bartilomo. Ela performed an energetic, expressive and utterly charming Marie Antionette that had the audience giggling throughout the whole showing. You do not have to know anything about Marie Antoinette to enjoy this lively performance.
Image + cover image supplied.
A solo circus show can be a very intense endeavour, and Ella demonstrated a wide range of skills through displays of contortion, acrobatics, aerial, and hand-balancing, whilst maintaining vibrant character work through all elements of the show. Special mention to the set design, with all the circus equipment on stage from the beginning, setting the scene as furniture and decoration prior to being used for their circus purpose. To someone who has seen a lot of circus, nothing was hidden so much as it was transformed into an object that belonged in that world.
One of my favourite parts about this show was the way the large hoop-skirt dress was worn for so much of the performance in a way that actually added to the circus skills on display. Oftentimes the skirt would cover Ellas torso and head while she moved around, adding whimsy and becoming a prop in its own right. Skills I had seen many times before suddenly became new again with this costume. When she later discarded the skirt for more difficult acts, it felt like an appropriate development in the story, with the large white wig being used in a very satisfying way at the end (I take it back, you should at least read the Wikipedia article on Marie Antionette before seeing this).
The CIRCFest listing of this work says this will become a 60 minute family show. While I am not the target audience for this work I will definitely still be booking in to see it again as I think it has a lot to offer for all ages..
