Circa
May 2012
Brisbane company Circa are one of Australia’s greatest contemporary circus exports but rarely get to perform in their homeland. Such is their overseas success, however, they now have two troupes touring the world at any given time.
The company are now looking forward to presenting a self-titled show in Melbourne and other capitals during May. Circa will feature seven performers and is a blend of three of the company’s most acclaimed works. It therefore makes for a perfect introduction to their work.
“It’s a rare treat to be performing in Australia, especially at Malthouse’s Merlyn Theatre which is such a very special venue,” the company’s artistic director, Yaron Lifschitz, says.
Circa came into being when Lifschitz took over ailing Brisbane troupe Rock And Roll Circus. “Rock And Roll Circus was on its last legs due to losing funding,” Lifschitz says. “It was just tottering along, so we created Circa out of that with a very clear ambition to travel around the world with a very new type of circus.”
Circa, which boasts a loyal supporter in Australian actor Cate Blanchett, have since captivated audiences around the globe, although they remain relatively unknown in Australia.
“It’s funny because I was talking to a friend the other day who is in a similar position of being quite successful overseas but not so much here,” Lifschitz, the subject of an Australian Story episode earlier this year, says. “He’s in a band and we were both saying that on the inside it’s like you are narrowly avoiding chaos but on the outside it looks like you are doing fine.
“The thing is we are a small arts organisation with a huge passion for what we do. We are not a major arts company in terms of resources so we have to work really hard to put beautiful works on stage.”
Lifschitz reasons that circus has evolved greatly in recent times.
“We are very much beneficiaries of the contemporary circus movement that includes Cirque Du Soleil,” he admits with a sly laugh. “But what we’ve been able to do with Circa is provide a genuine artistic space for performers which one of my very dear colleagues laughingly describes as, ‘dance with acrobats’. But I tend to think of it as a new form of circus that includes the vitality, immediacy and risk of the old-style circus. It’s theatrical poetry rather than just cheap thrills.”
The company, which will be taking part in the Cultural Olympiad later this year presenting a new work, How Like An Angel, in cathedrals and theatres around the UK, works as a collective.
“I have the great privilege of working as a director with an ensemble of artists which means we can develop ideas and acts together over a long period of time,” says Lifschitz. “We make it up together. We’ve had a couple of new members recently and one of the things that it takes new people a while to adjust to is the ferocious honesty of the company. It’s not a roomful of people continually slapping each other on the back and saying you’re doing a great job. It’s people continually pushing each other to get the absolute very best. There’s a relentless restlessness about the company which makes the work so special. We work hard to put the best ideas on stage.
“No-one gets involved in circus to be told what to do,” he adds. “So when they walk out on stage they have to believe in what they are doing. Circus is a risky business and if they are not in control of the material, it could be their very last performance. So that comes through in the work – the depth of connection between the people performing it and the material.”
Circa plays at Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, from May 29 – June 10