Circus Oz gets a bit blue

Circus Oz makes its Midsumma debut this month with The Blue Show, an intimate night of circus, vaudeville and burlesque that comes with one of the festival’s more appealing ‘warnings’: contains naked acrobats.

But as director Anni Davey told the Star Observer, The Blue Show isn’t just an excuse for a flesh-flash. First performed in 2004 at the Adelaide Arts Festival, the show is an opportunity for Circus Oz’s performers to explore their creativity, freed from the constrictions of a PG, family-friendly audience.

“Back in 2004 we said to the performers, ‘This is your chance to do whatever you want and we’re not going to censor your performance’. It’s a chance for them to use all the wacky ideas they’ve had that we haven’t been able to stage before because they require a certain intimacy, they require nudity, or they’re a little bit out there conceptually,” Davey said.

“There’s some political, edgy stuff going into the show, too. It’s bold and potentially abrasive, so for me as a director, there’s a lot of examination to be done about how it all works. It’s an opportunity for us to tell it like we think it is.”

Davey said that the company’s high quota of queer members — including recent recruits, real-life couple Sarah Ward and Bec Matthews — were particularly excited to be performing for a largely queer audience.

“There’s a whole lot of queer theory that feels easily embraced by circus: that you need people of all shapes and sizes, of all political persuasions. We are all about difference, so that’s why difference comes easy. I think that explains why Circus Oz often has a very queer-centric ensemble.”

The show will be performed in the company’s newest acquisition, a 100-year-old Spiegeltent which once saw Edith Piaf tread its boards.

“It’s not the sort of purchase Circus Oz usually makes; we’re usually very conservative with money. But when the offer came up, we couldn’t resist it. So often we’re performing in our own big top or in huge theatres and stadiums; this is so intimate.”

Intimate is right. Asked to pick her highlights of the show, Davey described a potentially lethal juggling act and an acrobatic stunt that makes bubble wrap sound downright dirty.

“You’re in this little tent with clubs flying straight past your face, which I’m assured is perfectly safe … as long as the punters don’t stick their hands out and try to grab one on the way past,” she laughed, a hint of trepidation showing in her voice.

“And we have a really magnificent, fluid acrobat who does a piece on a wooden platform that’s wrapped in very tightly stretched bubble wrap. He moves very slowly into a handstand and pops the bubbles with his fingers, then moves slowly down onto his head and pops them with his head … I cannot tell you how incredibly electric it is.

“The satisfaction of popping bubbles is really fetishistic, and watching this strong, controlled acrobat doing it in total silence is just magnetic.”

info: Circus Oz ‘The Blue Show’, January 13 to February 6, Circus Oz Melba Spiegeltent, Docklands. www.midsumma.org.au