The excellent Circus Oz are back in town. Celebrating their 35th birthday, this year’s show is entitled, CRANKED UP.
The theme of the show is a construction site .The sold out house in the tremendous Big Top loved it – terrific school holiday family fare for everyone. As it was opening night we had an official ‘first people’s welcome from ‘Uncle Fred’ Simms and also, after interval, a warm, impressive speech by her Excellency the Governor General Quentin Bryce , looking stunning in a hot pink outfit.
The large, amazingly talented cast performed with verve and enthusiasm. Generally they wore white paint spattered overalls. CRANKED UP expands and develops some of the industrial aesthetic that underlies previous productions (it is a reworking of FROM THE GROUND UP) , adds various new cast members and polishes recent content while still maintaining Oz’s trademark irreverent chaotic mayhem and collaborative spirit.
The show was inspired at least partly by black and white photographs from the early part of the 20th century, of steel workers eating lunch on the high girders of skyscrapers. ‘Cranked Up ‘ is fast , loose and exuberant and features among other things acrobats dangerously suspended from, and flying through the air, around a giant swinging steel beam. Other highlights include acts such as Mason West’s sway pole and Hazel Bock’s astonishing foot juggling. A dizzying, breath-taking flying trapeze ensemble opens Act 2, and there’s a nifty, very tricky tether board finale . Exciting, almost impossible balancing on a board atop five unstable cylinders is also included.
Some of the characters that have been running for several years now (for example Jez Davies’ manic, clueless magician , although I love the glittery fancy coat he wears)- really haven’t evolved that much over the past few shows and are perhaps too reliant on single gags. It would not be an Oz show without at least one of their trademark kangaroos making an appearance, with the roo telling a poignant story.
Visual gags include flying , levitating prepared grand pianos complete with candelabra , and Mark Sheppard as compere uses a construction metaphor for racial unity.
Circus Oz is not a mere circus, but is now a social justice movement, intent on making a positive difference to those least able to access entertainment. To this end more than 1000 asylum seekers have so far received tickets to their shows, and a project called BLAKflip to engage indigenous performers (three of whom are part of the current troupe) are testament to their commitment to social justice.
Madcap, enthusiastic acts include : seven people riding on a single bicycle ( trademark Circus Oz ). As already mentioned Hazel Bock’s dazzling , laughing ticklish foot juggling with balls, or a table (yes, a table), while draped backwards over a deck chair. Awe inspiring dangerous trapeze including one troupe member climbing across two others while suspended in space. Someone vanishing squashed into a common sized esky.There is an lyrical, mesmerizing hoop aerialist segment too.
As always with Circus Oz, Music plays an important part in the show. The band is terrific, and most of the cast members also play an instrument .In Act 2 there are duelling electric guitars .A grand piano is played while suspended from the rig. In Act 2 there is a mesmerising sequence where a drum kit , dramatically played Taikoz style, is suspended aloft, dangerously swinging like a pendulum, through tumbling acrobats .Mention must also be made of Jez Davie’s juggling four stool legs to rather melancholy , lyrical piano music .Stylistically the music is very eclectic , ranging from jazz to classical to heavy rock.
Speaking of juggling I must not forget to mention Tom Davis’ terrific, very complicated hat juggling .
With an irreverent eye for the topical (the ‘Redfern Now’ in-joke for example ) the Circus Oz troupe is always quirky and warmly connects with their audience, with banter and good humour bringing us a show that is fun, highly skilled and dramatic .
Next destinations for the troupe are : Boston and Montreal. Circus Oz Sydney Big Top Season: Cranked Up plays from January 1 – 27 2014 at Tumbalong Park.
For bookings visit ticketmaster.com.au or call 136 100.
Running time 2 & ½ hours (approx) including one interval.