Now in its 40^th year Circus Oz is rolling back into Melbourne, with their latest show: Precarious!

When: 26 June – 15 July 2018, various times

Where: Enter via the Observatory Gate on Birdwood Avenue (opposite the Shrine of Remembrance), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Southern Cross Lawn SOUTH YARRA

Cost: From $35, book now

Many thanks to contributor Thuy On for attending on behalf of Meetoo and sharing her review.

The latest iteration is a no-interval 70 mins worth of hijinks and aptly titled Precarious. It perfectly sums up the talent and their bag of tricks in this anniversary edition.

This year the Circus Oz bigtop is set in the lush surrounds of the Botanic Gardens, a wonderful location that invites a leisurely linger pre-show if you haven’t visited recently.

It begins with what looks like a giant set of Jenga blocks being pulled this way and that and these versatile blocks will be used in various ways throughout the show. Many other tools and apparatus will be manipulated: including small balls, large hoops, Chinese pole, rope and hanging cloths to twirl, but really it’s the flexibility, grace and strength of the seven performers that are the backbone of Precarious.

With two musicians providing live back up sounds and original songs, the wordless ensemble cavort, tumble, juggle, balance, somersault and impress on the floor and in the air. Aerial, acrobats and gymnastics are all part of the act (with no safety nets!).

The set however, is not cramped with extraneous details and similarly the show itself seems pared down. Even the costumes are tastefully tailored in shades of grey, white, black and red, not in the typically bright and garishly neon colours favoured by many circuses.

The one quibble about Precarious is the subtle and lacklustre storytelling. Whatever message the artistic director wanted to portray wasn’t strong enough (something about the natural world’s fragility?) and needed further emphasis in order to complement the team on the floor.

PS: For those wondering about the Winter chill, be assured the tent is heated!

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Opening (group acro) 

• Precarious ensemble

Walk the plank (clowning) 

• Tara Silcock and Lachlan Sukroo

Ministry comes to life (group acro) 

• Precarious ensemble

Switchboard (aerial tippy ring) 

• Emily Gare

Conveyor belt (juggling)

• Foot juggle – Tara Silcock
• Ball juggle – Lachlan Sukroo, Emily Gare, Dylan Singh and Jon Bonaventura
• Supported by Tania Cervantes and Jake Silvestro

Archive room (block handstands)

• Jon Bonaventura and supported by Dylan Singh

Delivery (bungee trapeze)

• Dylan Singh

Jake’s Hunt (acro)

• Jake Silvestro, Tania Cervantes and Dylan Singh

Seed stuck (clowning) 

• Tara Silcock and Lachlan Sukroo

Swinging Chinese pole

• Lachlan Sukroo and supported by Tara Silcock

Lunch song

• Sophia Exiner and Jeremy Hopkins and supported by Precarious ensemble

Precarious Emily (solo balance and group balance)

• Emily Gare and supported by Precarious ensemble

Cyr wheel

• Jake Silvestro

Conveyor belt – reprise (juggling)

• Lachlan Sukroo, Emily Gare, Dylan Singh and Jon Bonaventura
• Supported by Tania Cervantes

Tania Slings

• Tania Cervantes Chamorro

Drowning (solo acro)

• Jon Bonaventura

Line Up

• Jake Silvestro, Lachlan Sukroo, Tara Silcock, Emily Gare, Jon Bonaventura and Dylan Singh

Poopy Hoop (hoops)

• Tara Silcock

Wall chaos (group acro) 

• Precarious ensemble