They come from a land down under, and, according to a San Francisco Chronicle reviewer, their brand of show business is “a bit punk, undeniably in your face, refreshingly progressive, unapologetically off-color, and gleefully Australian.”
They’re the performers of Circus Oz, a rock ’n’ roll, animal-free troupe that has, since its creation in Melbourne in 1978, served up breathtaking stunts, irreverent humor, and original live music that grown-ups and wee ones can enjoy together.
Circus Oz, described as “rambunctiously entertaining” by a Sydney Morning Herald critic, makes its Penn State debut in Straight Up Feb. 7 at Eisenhower Auditorium.
The company promotes the two-hour show as “a refreshing cocktail of new and old, innovation and institution. Our turbo-charged performers bring amazing new skill and wizardry to the flying trapeze, the Chinese pole, and a brand-new group juggling act that is sure to drop jaws as 21 clubs duck and weave from acrobat to acrobat. … This is classic Circus Oz: absurd Australian larrikins pushing the boundaries of possibility and defying the laws of physics.”
Australia’s national circus, with a touring troupe that averages 10 acrobats and two musicians, has performed in 28 nations on five continents
Circus Oz was a merger of two successful Australian groups — Soapbox Circus and New Circus.
“The founding members of Circus Oz loved the skills and tricks of traditional circus but wanted to make a new sort of show that a contemporary audience could relate to, adding elements of rock ’n’ roll, popular theatre, and satire,” according to the company’s Web site. “They wanted it to be funny, irreverent, and spectacular, a celebration of the group as a bunch of multi-skilled individual women and men, rather than a hierarchy of stars. Above all, they didn’t want to take themselves too seriously.”
The company has always stood for tolerance, diversity, and human kindness. In the last decade, Circus Oz has raised more than half a million dollars for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. In 2011, the troupe created the BLAKflip Program, which blazes pathways into the circus arts for emerging and established indigenous artists. Each year, the circus also gives away 1,000 tickets to refugees, women’s shelters, and others in need.
“Circus Oz maintains the proud, progressive spirit in which it was conceived with encouraging success,” notes a writer for the Australian edition of The Guardian. “… With a social conscience matched only by its inspiring energy, collective power is in the soul of this place; the rehearsal room is warm, and equal, and supportive, and it’s laid bare again in the Big Top. The metaphors inspired by ten strong arms raising another body are too obvious to finish. But for all of their activist sensibilities, Oz is absolutely no less a circus.”
Benson and Christine Lichtig, William Rabinowitz, and Shirley Sacks sponsor the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State presentation. MAJIC 99 is the media sponsor. For information or tickets, visit cpa.psu.edu or phone (814) 863-0255.
