Circus Oz: Sidesault at the Melba

Circus Oz’s Sidesault at this year’s Melba Festival has featured local and international companies that present experimental works that challenge and push the boundaries of contemporary circus. Three of the works are Jugg Life – Jugg Life Productions, Hell Is Other People by Jess Love (Love is the Drug) and Feed The Horse – Radish by Night - performed by carney infused talented individuals!

Two clever tricksters, Byron Hutton and Richard Sullivan, from Jugg Life announce their arrival with a beating of their own drum, along with a bunch of clownish juggling tricks up their sleeves. This show is simple in its complexity.

Hutton and Sullivan provide a delightful kinetic energy, with non-stop Mortal Kombat juggling, as in a boxing ring to win that crown of glory, the humble chocolate muffin.

Light hearted and fun, they’re made for each other; just like any comical duo they work best when they’re together. 

Hell Is Other People by Jess Love is a curious mix of acrobatic circus performance and a personal account of one’s loves and losses. The scene is set in a Parisian haze of mon amour with her love of Frenchie the clown, but there are more and more lovers, both sexes, tumultuous love affairs, drunken nights and broken hearts. She is upfront, anarchic and cathartic and bares her naked self - body and soul.

She balances her unique acrobatic style with story and uses ropes and trapeze to provide metaphor and meaning to her complex love life. Love is energetic and resilient, utilizing her circus talents and skills to create riveting self-reflective tales.

Feed The Horse by Radish by Night is an ensemble performance that creates a dystopic, surreal world that is playfully absurd, absorbed by a menacing dark ambience that pervades the Melba Spiegieltent.

A female is huddled into the arms of a man, his hair is braided into webbed ropes; with the deeper subconscious at play, this dreamlike staging evolves into a nightmare. The acrobatics, tight- rope, tumbling performances, elegant cone-stilts and the zombie apocalypse performances create a wonderful spectacle for audience participants. 

Feed the Horse delivers different and challenging circus tropes that are surprisingly wonderful.

Flora Georgiou

Images: Jugg Life, Hell Is Other People and Feed The Horse.