Maho Maho Magic Bar | Broad Encounters & Darkfield | Realscape Productions
There’s nothing like being stumped by a magic trick and some of them blew me away. I was racking my brain to work out how they were pulling off those tricks and I doubt there is anyone who could keep a smile off their face while objects disappear and then reappear inside a completely in-tact orange.
The Knock 'Em Downs | Clint Bolster & Annie Lee
Lee and Bolster were painfully ambivalent, even indifferent, to anyone and everyone’s presence. And best of all, when audience’s participation didn’t cut the mustard, they made no attempt to hide their disappointment. If your ball throwing skills were aimless, you knew it. If you took too long to hand over your ticket, you knew it. If your hoop throws onto the pointy clown noses were lacklustre, you knew it. And not just because of the clown’s body language – with impatient eyes and slouched shoulders – but also because of the ‘loser’ sound que they’d hit each time someone’s efforts deserved public condemnation.
The Purple Rabbit | Strut & Fret
The five performers all brought wonderful energy and presence from the moment they came onto the stage, showcasing their wide variety of tricks and talents. Most surprising for me was the combination of a champagne bottle and vocal percussion from the beatboxing champion Gale, whose exquisite sonically complex acts made me wish I could have enjoyed his work on a dance floor.
Banquet | Chevron Showgirls
I’m a sucker for sideshow, and there were some very neatly presented skills on the stage. Better than that, the sideshow was wrapped up in beautiful daydream, where beauties wandered in and out of vision doing nonsensical, fabulous, dangerous things. Sideshow is often a showman’s trick, a five-minute throwaway routine with a big bang finish. This was different, it played with the skills, made them into little stories, eddies in a dream. It was very nice indeed.
The G.O.A.T. Show | Shock Therapy Productions
We sit on fold-out chairs on the front lawn of an abandoned house on Chevron Island. A table piled with iceberg lettuces sits beside a temporary stage. Our hosts, two men in neon coloured suits, are offering pickled onions from the jar, sardines from the can and melons ripped apart with their bare hands. They take it upon themselves to gently whack some audience members with fly swatters, despite the lack of flies. Ah, yes, hospitality.
KooKoo the Bird Girl | Sarah Houbolt
There is an authenticity to deeply personal art that speaks to the universal. Houbolt’s performance evokes a frisson that every misjudged soul can recognise; the lone soldier standing bravely in a circle of mocking laughter.