It seems to be a growing trend for high intensity circus shows to be making their way down under, and we are not mad about it. Cirque Adrenaline is the latest blood pumping, heart racing, thrilling new show to settle into the State Theatre, and what unraveled over the course of two hours was nothing short of electrifying.
A lot of these circus shows seem to have the same death-defying acts in them so the outcome can seem a little expected, but when you share the experience with hundreds of other theatregoers who’ve never seen anything like this before in their life, it makes it a brand new experience all over again.
The dramatic theatrics of the lighting and soundtrack are what brought this show to new heights, as each technical element was perfectly matched with the extreme acts, and added to the overall experience. With incredible performances across a variety of circus disciplines, the audience was able to be overwhelmed by insanely twisted contortion, beautiful pas de deux, outrageously strong men, clever trickery with juggling, blazing acts of fire and amazingly skillful trampolining. However the two pinnacle acts of the evening came from the infamous Wheel of Death and the Sphere of Fear.
When you come to a show like this, you can only imagine what the life insurance policy would be in your contract. Astronomical no doubt. These artists are undeniably athletic, they’re risk takers and they have to be a little bit crazy to be doing what they’re doing. They’re defying the odds of life. On Saturday night, the audience experienced a bit of a scare when one of the performers in the Wheel of Death almost quite literally skipped and fell to his death. To say we all screamed is an understatement. Whether or not this was part of a very staged ‘fall’ we don’t know, but it definitely confirmed that we did not want to see someone die on that stage.
To alleviate all our stresses during the show was the jovial clown. Now, this physical comedian was an absolute hoot and the star of the show. As to be expected, audience participation ensued but no joke, these randomly selected audience members were outstanding. They played along with the host and funnily enough, one man even outshone him by doing The Moonwalk and The Worm. Talk about an outcry of cheering and applause.
Cirque Adrenaline’s season is over, but you can learn more about the production here. The writer attended the show on Saturday April 2.
Disclaimer: Katelyn Rew also headed along to see the same Cirque Adrenaline show, see her perspective here.
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