SPIEGELWORLD - EMPIRE
SPIEGELWORLD - EMPIRE, Showring at the Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, 7-26 January 2014. Melbourne in March. Photos: 3-D Graffiti Guy (above) and Fanny (right).
For those familiar with Empire from the show's previous visit to the city, the return of Oscar the Impresario and his wife Fanny with their troupe is not before time. For those new to the experience - well, hang on to your knickers, you're in for an extremely extreme ride.
Sydney has developed a huge appetite for vaudeville-human circus since La Clique first caused a spiegel tent's roof to lift off. Since then it appears that spiegel tents have been breeding somewhere; the funky old joints pop up all over the place - there are three in Sydney right now. These glass and timber fun palaces are integral to the shows - the intimacy and slightly ratty quality are just right for the extraordinary but very human endeavours that go on inside. And Spiegelworld is quintessentially ratty-brilliant circus-cabaret for adults of all ages.
"Ratty" shouldn't be taken to mean rough or amateurish, however, rather that the company shuns the high concept glamour of "those Cirque du Soleil assholes" (direct quote from Oscar the Impresario) in favour of the funky and outre. And pretty much everything they do is Extreme - including the audience participation segment. No bets that "Tony" - the brave and excellent audient on opening night - revealed things about himself that probably neither he nor his wife knew before, and all of it good!
The show is not simply a bunch of weird and wonderful acts thrown together - the structure is careful and cunning. It begins outside in the rustic-industrial courtyard bar (reminiscent of Barrie Kosky's fabled Festival bar at Adelaide) where a bare-chested guy ambles about and surveys the crowd from high up on a rough scaffolding perch. It's difficult not to gawp, but it's also damned annoying because he oozes "I'm-sexy-and-don't-I-know-it" and you really really want to not look at him. Let's face it, he's just serious eye candy. Hold that thought.
Modern human circus is most often a series of gasps and "wows!" but Empire begins with an ethereally gentle contortionist (yes, it sounds contradictory) that settles a boisterous audience into being mesmerised by the huge perspex bubble in which she is suspended and performs. "Miss A in a Bubble" is actually Lucia Carbines, an Australian who appears to have rubber where the rest of us have joints and bones and supreme grace in place of ordinary awkwardness.
In case you're lulled into a stunned reverie by the spinning globe, Oscar and Fanny - Jonathan Taylor and Anne Goldman - arrive to dispel any misplaced notions of good taste with a quick change act that's both funny and revealing - in more ways than one. Although blink and you'll miss the penis - as Fanny will tell you she often does.
The show's posters and banners feature three gorgeous dames known as the Gorilla Girls. Just imagine Victoria's Secret has run away and joined the circus - all black bustiers, fishnets and suspenders. What's not to love? Even better is that the Ukraine's most gorgeous export, Katerina Rudenko, Alona Stekolinkova and Alina Reutsa, perform an act to gladden any girl's heart: balance, tumbling, acrobatics and strength in equal measure and their knowing porno-pouts never slip, even for a moment. It's Spice-o-batics Girls writ large and grown up. Feminism never had her tongue so firmly in her cheek.
The temperature and pace are raised and lowered with elan as Memet Bilgin Rigolo, aka 3D Graffiti Guy from Turkey, answers the age-old question - what could I do with a quite large stainless steel spinning top and a very long length of driftwood? It's as gentle and mesmerising as the opening twirling sphere and, of course, Memet is that wretch from the scaffolding perch who dared us to believe he was merely macho window dressing and not a skilled performer.
Extreme roller skating is made even more extreme by the proximity to the folk in the front row as Polka Dot Woman and Blue Tarpaulin Man do their thing at high speed and on wheels. Being raised in Putin's Russia would surely make you or break you, so could that be why Denis Petaov and Mariia Beseimbetova apparently have no fear?
Ethiopia is another country that demands courage and Tariku Degefa and Yonas Alemu - Black Flintstone and Big Mac Boy - demonstrate it in buckets. They are two of the more extreme jugglers you're ever likely to see as Flintstone lies on his back to balance Big Mac Boy on his upturned feet before going into a routine of flips, catches and balances. That they do all this to a jolly disco version of Ode to Joy is a lighthearted bonus.
While the foot flippers have the crowd squealing for one set of derring do, Carrot Man and Lime Green Lady - Vlad Ivashkin and Aiusha Khadzh Khamed from Ukraine - also cause hundreds of hearts to leap into mouths. Between them they plumb the heights and depths between gravity and balance. Don't try any of this at home.
Fanny and Oscar return to the stage with bananas and engage each other and the audience in some unique mouth juggling. It's raucous, ridiculous and revolting - and very, very funny. By this time you will be amazed to discover about 70 or 80 minutes have flown by and it's time for the finale. And if you're not already convinced that this is a really clever show - and not simply because the performers are all astonishing - what happens next is the clincher.
Poseur Guy - Memet Bilgin Rigolo - returns to the stage for "Branch Balance" and that's exactly what it is. You may have seen it on YouTube and been awed - but just wait until you see him do it in real life and real time. The audacity of stopping a rollicking, noisy show of crazy moments dead in its tracks for an act that demands (and gets) total silence for 8-10 minutes (?) is as extreme as anything that's gone before. Bilgin takes a single feather and many palm branches (stripped of fronds) of various sizes, and one by one creates a mobile that would make Alexander Calder weep with delight. Poseur Guy turns out to be a man of such grace and disciplined athleticism you want to prostrate yourself at his feet and beg forgiveness for ever having a single bad thought about him.
Empire is a fabulous show. It's here - dangerously - during the Sydney Festival and should not suffer because it's not part of that oxygen-sucking marketing machine. (Why is it not in the Festival by the way?) If you fancy being transported with fright and delight for 90 non-stop dumbfounding minutes that engage heart and mind - go for it.
And there's a bar of course, open throughout...and the live soundtrack and accompaniment are supplied by Miss Purple and Moondog (Victoria Matlock and John Shannon) who should not be considered afterthoughts because they're integral to the show's success.
