Circus Oz
19 June 2014
Circus Oz Big Top, Birrarung Marr
to 13 July, then touring
circusoz.com
It's impossible not to love a night in the heated Circus Oz tent, and if seeing them in winter in Melbourne with a bag of hot doughnuts isn't a tradition for your family and friends, start it now.
The Melbourne-based, world-adored company have a new permanent home in Collingwood and But wait ... there's more is the first show created in the space.
With the ever-lovely hip-hopping Candy Bowers as MC, this year's mob are a mix of new and old(er) faces who all start with their own skills, bring new twists to some favourite tricks and ensure that expectations and assumptions about the likes of gender, attitude, background and ability are always challenged.
And remember that there never has and never will be any non-human animals in a Circus Oz show. But there's always a live band.
Founding member and costume designer Laurel Frank has created barcode costumes for the clowning, and with velvet, tartan and sequins, every vaudeville-inspired costume is an extension of the performer's personality.
So with positive politics and love to share, the show's about how we want stuff that we don't need, how we want to be things (like rich and thin) that we're not, and how we judge without seeing the whole picture.
As it's the first time out for But wait ... there's more, it's still a bit raw but nothing can take away from the passion that's created Circus Oz shows for the last 36 years and will hopefully continue to do so until we're not around to see them.
This was on AussieTheatre.com.
