Hysteria | Chelsea McGuffin & Co and Backbone

This show is a powerful representation of mental distress! Hysteria is the product of the collaboration between Chelsea McGuffin, Alex Mizzen, and Jackie Marshall, and explores the challenges of mental health through circus performance, sound, and storytelling.

I enjoyed every aspect of this performance. I appreciated the guided meditation for compassion that opened the show. The audience wore headphones, thus creating an immersive experience. A soothing voice invited us to breathe, feel our heart, and connect with that of others. It also reminded us that, if at any point during the show we felt in distress, we could have gone back to feeling our heart beat.

This invitation was warranted because soon after the meditation, the headphones played stories of women facing severe mental stress. The stories were mixed with sounds by creative and music producer Jackie Marshall. Some phrases were repeated multiple times creating the feeling of the permanence of memory. The stories were told in first person by the women who experienced them, some of whom performed in the show. After the show I got to talk to two of them and it was touching to see their resilience and inspiring to witness their courage.  

I find circus to be a great interpretative tool to represent mental distress. Very much like mental health, the success of circus relies on balancing skills. The main act of Hysteria was funambulism (tightrope), with performers walking and even cycling on the rope throughout the show. What I appreciated the most about these acts of funambulism was when the performers walked together, balanced each other out, and helped each other getting to the other side of the rope. Again, just like mental health, circus is better with the support of other.

The aesthetics of the performance was both whimsical and dramatic at the same time. For example, the show opened with two people on a sail boat stuck at the top of a tall pole, rowing and throwing off the boat colourful balls. All the performers were wearing white and some acrobats were jumping, tumbling, and rolling resembling fairies of the woods. It was only at the end of the show and when I approached the artists to talk to them that I realised that their white costumes were made with or to resemble straitjackets. 

The show was held at Backbone, the youth art organisation that the Brisbane City Council wants to relocate to the outskirts of Brisbane. As a reason for the relocation, Brisbane City Council cited residents’ feedback claiming that the space is underutilised. I notice that often Brisbane residents are distracted or oblivious about the cultural richness that this city produces. As part of Hysteria, two large circus towers for funambulism have been placed in the garden of Backbone. I hope that the East Brisbane residents will not miss these and can now see that the club is utilised. 

Read our interview with the creator of Hysteria, Chelsea McGuffin, here.