Circus Oz
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Circus Oz

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Given the extra preparation time, the Circus Oz team were feeling pretty relaxed in the lead up to their month-long stint in the Big Top at Birrarung Marr. “There’s actually something really quite calming about walking into the tent for the first time,” says music director Ania Reynolds. “It’s like, ‘Alright cool, here we are. We’ve just got to do it now.’ It’s a pretty lovely space. The difference between going to theatres and going to the tent is that it’s ours. Everyone who’s there is part of the Circus Oz team. We’ve had small seasons in really great theatres, so I think now going into the tent we know what the show is.”

Guest director Anni Davey guided the formulation of this year’s show, withthe aim being to include new and exciting surprises while also retaining many crowd favourites and upholding Circus Oz’s rough-and-tumble trademark. Twentysixteen includes a range of daring acrobatics – flying trapeze, Chinese pole, unicycle adagio, and group juggling – as well as comedy and live music.

“It’s a very skilled cast so a lot of the acrobatics that are achieved in the show this year are pretty spectacular,” Reynolds says. “All of them are ensemble shows, but this one in particular has a real strong ensemble,” says performer Kyle Raftery. “You get to know each person and follow them through the show, because everyone’s so involved in every part of the show.”

Raftery is a perfect example of the cast’s polymath propensity – he plays trumpet in the band, pairs with April Dawson in the unicycle adagio act, and gets involved in a handful of group acrobatic numbers. In many ways, Circus Oz has long been a showcase of multi-tasking performers.

“Matt Wilson – he first joined the Circus in the ‘90s – he does everything,” Reynolds says. “He was the dude who got shot out of the cannon back in the day. He does high falls, he does trapeze, he plays music, he builds his own props. It’s a nice thing about it – that culture. It’s following that traditional ethos of everyone in the circus pitching in to do everything. So if someone’s not performing in an act they might be counter-weighting the rigger or on the band stage. Everyone’s pretty involved, as opposed to being backstage and coming on to do your five minute spot.”

“Myself, like everybody else in the show, just goes from start to finish without a break,” laughs Raftery.

The current ensemble includes a total of 11 performers. The majority of them have been working together for the last two years, and three new members came on board ahead of this year’s show. Of course, the limited number of personnel could make things rather challenging, but it also gives everyone a great sense of responsibility.

“I think it’s a given that you’ve got to be completely committed the whole time,” Raftery says. “It’s hard to figure out where you can make yourself available to other things. Sometimes you don’t want to get too involved with what’s happening onstage, because then you miss opportunities to go and play in the band or [do something else].”

Another hallmark of the Circus Oz experience is an emphasis on improvisation. This is something that a multi-tasker like Raftery takes full advantage of. “The opening of the show is essentially a piano solo while the acrobats run over the piano and jump over Ania playing the piano,” he says. “But then there’s a few of us who play piano, so whenever we’ve got maybe a ten second break in our acrobatic load we can go and play a couple of notes on the piano. So you’re always looking for opportunities like that.”

“There’s always an improvised element. It’s just part of the culture of the company,” Reynolds says. “Personally, it’s one of those things that keeps you really fresh and engaged.”

To be clear, Twentysixteen flows within a structure, but it’s never too strict. As music director, Reynolds is partially responsible for making sure things don’t go too far off track. “From a musical point of view there are moments where people are able to improvise and go on a tangent, but then there’s also really specific cue points,” she says. “It’s quite nice to move between the two. Depending on what way the music’s syncing with the act – whether it’s really trying to precisely hit moments of action or whether it’s a bit more fluid – you can have a bit of fun trying things in different spots and seeing what impression that gives.”

Reynolds has been playing in the Circus Oz band since 2010, contributing a variety of instruments including keyboards, baritone saxophone and French horn. She took over as music director in 2014. Given the centrality of music in Twentysixteen – which covers everything from jazz and big band to electronic, hip hop and rock – Reynolds and Davey worked closely together in mapping out the show’s dynamics, while also staying open to suggestions from the ensemble.

“That’s a very satisfying part of the process,” Reynolds says. “All the material, the music and the acts and just everything that happens onstage, is created from the ensemble. Particularly with this show, there was no prescribed theme or particular narrative or aesthetic that we were going for. It was just, ‘Here’s the group. What are we going to come up with?’ And because most of us have been working together for two years, you’ve got quite a nice rapport and collective consciousness.” 

The democratic construction method depends on a certain amount of flexibility from all involved, which in turn opens the way for unexpected developments, as Reynolds explains. “In the initial creative development we went away and wrote a bunch of music. Meanwhile there was a lot of skills that were being trained. Then we did a showing and tried different pieces with different music, and that ended up being the way we worked out a few things. But on the other hand, some acts emerged with a really strong theme or character or narrative, then it was like, ‘We actually just need to write some music that supports that.’

“That’s great to work with. It gives you a lot of freedom in both directions. It’s nice to be given very specific briefs to work to, but it is nice to generate material where it happens in conjunction with the action.”

The stint in the Big Top lasts for the better part of a month, and the improvisational emphasis means the show will have plenty of opportunity to keep growing. “If you looked at the show in its first performance at Warrnambool compared to how it was at the end of Sao Paulo, it’s changed quite significantly,” Reynolds says. “There’s a lot of things that happen when you read a crowd.

“Sometimes when things like props might not do what they’re supposed to or what have you, it’s a really great chance to see how you’re going to get out of those situations. People have become quite adept at improvising and just working it out onstage.”

Raftery agrees. “If it’s a fairly major [thing that happens], for example if a prop suddenly breaks, often what is improvised is quite good and then we’ll think, ‘How can we keep those elements that made that moment really great?’ Often we look back and try to keep something there.”

Every performance puts the ensemble’s stamina to the test, and with such a high level of risk and potential for chaos involved in the show, the ensemble members would be forgiven for being overcome with worry. However, Raftery says that’s never much of an issue.

“It’s just so much fun. Once the audience is in, we’re just having a great time. You might get nervous beforehand, but when you’re in it, your just focused on what your doing and that’s controlling your thoughts.”

By Augustus Welby