SHOWS
You & I
Casus Creations
Award winning company and fringe favourites Casus Creations are back with their most daring and intimate work You & I. An empowering hour of skill and identity celebrating the loving relationship between two circus artists using high-level acrobatics, trapeze, magic and dance. This unashamedly authentic journey reveals a fresh narrative where gay stories are not consumed by tragedy but filled with conviction and acceptance.
Saturday & Sunday
Monumental 2.0
Spaghetti Circus
The Spaghetti Circus Performance Troupe will present their hit show Monumental, reimagined in-the-round for a Big Top audience.
With exciting new additions to this great ensemble, these local kids aged 11 – 19 years, will knock your socks off with their phenomenal skills and curiosity while flying in the air, holding each other up and diving through hoops. During this fun-filled, dynamic show, you’ll be tapping your toes to the live music from local legends Sue Simpson and Harry James Angus.
Under the guidance of guest directors from A Good Catch Circus, the show explores the missing moments in history, the under-recognised achievements of scientists, social advocates, and artists. Come and see the circus stars of tomorrow in their own backyard!
Directors: Spenser Inwood and Debra Batton from A Good Catch Circus; co-produced with the Brunswick Picture House.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday
FAMILY SHOW
CHEEKY CABARET
BRUNSWICK PICTURE HOUSE
The town had no idea what to expect when the Brunswick Picture House flung open its doors with an outrageous, genre-bending, adult variety show, the Cheeky Cabaret. Its reputation has since spread like wildfire with its often weird but always fabulous line-up, selling out every month and attracting international artists who would ordinarily play much bigger stages. We’re thrilled to be bringing this cracker of a show to the National Circus Festival! Think you’ve seen it all?! Think again…
Sunday
18+ SHOW
Stir The Pot
Collective Circus
Enter a world of glitter, sass, strength and girlhood. Tumbling through real experiences of inequality and societal pressures, this group of fierce, passionate female circus performers stir up and tear apart the traditional, domestic views of what it means to be female. In a celebration of bows, sparkle and sheer muscle, these acrobats tackle everything from the restrictions and challenges to connection and strength of femininity. Opening act by the Super Mighties from Spaghetti Circus.
Saturday & Sunday
FAMILY SHOW
Ding Dilemmas
Dandyman
Take a holiday for your imagination at the "Ding Hotel" with your host Dandyman, the overworked hotel manager. Laugh, love and gasp as he embarks on a fiery adventure with unexpected romance. This globally acclaimed artist of outstanding physical comedy and improvisational abilities presents a fabulous, family-friendly show, which combines silent comedy and engaging dialogue for an unforgettable experience that transcends language barriers.
Saturday
FAMILY SHOW
Planet Lava
Milk Crate Circus
Everyone is an alien and the floor is lava! Space explorer Corie Hurry uses circus to solve problems and shows that children are the smartest kids in the universe.
Planet Lava is silly and interactive with high-level handstand and circus skills put together to empower an audience of clever alien children.
Saturday & Sunday
FAMILY SHOW
Treetop Arts Circus Cabaret
Treetop Arts
Treetop Arts Circus Troupe are bringing together skills in tumbling, group work, skipping, trampoline and unicycle to create a punchy cabaret jam packed with acrobatics.
Saturday
FAMILY SHOW
Small Wonders
Rooke
Welcome to Small Wonders. A world built for circus and humanity, 45 minutes of gasps, laughs and dropped jaws that will transport you out of the here and now and stay with you, maybe, forever. Expect acrobatics, juggling, magic, a rogue dog and music you’ll love. Featuring Billie Wilson-Coffey, Bridie Hooper, Joel Salom, Tony Rooke and featuring Eric the Dog. Be there or be square.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday
Snatch and Grab
Snatch Circus
COMPLETELY MENTAL. Snatch and Grab is a radical circus car crash of dangerous juggling, drunken stunts and precariously balanced toasters.
A circus celebration of the fierce and wild. Snatch and Grab is a D.I.Y spectacle of absurd acrobatics, contorted comedy and household appliances. Built by Snatch Circus, a fem-punk circus from Belfast, made up of award-winning agents of chaos Angelique Reckless Ross and Mish Mash Thoburn.
Friday & Saturday
15+ SHOW
For the Love of the World
A Good Catch Circus
For the Love of the World re-wilds the Big Top into a green glorious garden. Local and national circus performers with big reputations and even bigger hearts join A Good Catch Circus (Casting Off) in a 50-minute show. Fabulous acts of hopeful wonder include tightwire, acrobatics, hula hoop and cradle, with an intergenerational ensemble from their 20s to 60s. A circus show for anyone who loves the world because the circus reminds us of what a human can do and doing something for the planet is up to us.
Please wear florals and / or bring a flower or pot plant (that you can take home with you).
Saturday
Lil' Cheeky
BRUNSWICK PICTURE HOUSE
From the team at Brunswick Picture House and Cheeky Cabaret - this family friendly circus bonanza is back in an all new, all-ages circus show that no one - young or old - should miss!
Lil' Cheeky is what you get if you crossed family-friendly cabaret with the circus and then threw in a bit of comedy and a good dose of hijinks and surprise. With Lil' Cheeky, you can expect things you’ve never seen before from a crazy talented, hugely entertaining and eclectic crew of performers from around the corner and throughout Australia.
Saturday
FAMILY SHOW
Circus Arts Youth Performance Troupe
Circus Arts Australia
This young troupe has come together from a range of different backgrounds, with one common goal – a love of circus and performing. Watch as these young performers go on a journey of self-discovery, overcoming fears and finding independence. An abundance of circus acts, like acrobatics, aerials and trampolining promise unforgettable entertainment.
Sunday
FAMILY SHOW
Hana Fiesta’s Disco Fiasco
Hana Fiesta
Hana Fiesta invites you to a dance party... but the lights and sound are broken! Using high energy DIY, circus skills, slapstick and utter silliness she fixes things - in time for you to join the interactive disco to celebrate. Come for the circus show, stay for the dance party!
Saturday & Sunday
FAMILY SHOW
Scott's BMX Trick Bike Show
Scott Hone
Telling the story of his first bike all the way to joining the circus, Hone demonstrates how perseverance, thinking creatively, and trying new things can lead you on a grand adventure through life. With an ambitious finale; five audience members join Hone on stage to triumphantly ride the bike all at once.
Friday & Saturday
FAMILY SHOW
NAUGHTIES
YUCK CIRCUS
Quit partying like it’s 1999- it’s time to celebrate all things Y2K.
YUCK are back with a totally hot, totally bitchin BRAND-NEW SHOW.
It's giving Backstreet Boys, Britney, and BIG throwback energy. Embrace a decade not to be forgotten- with furbies, flip phones, and AnYtHiNg TyPeD LiKe ThIs. Mix that with high-flying acrobatics and ripper comedy, this is not a show to miss!
Friday & Saturday | 15+ SHOW
Escalate in the Studio
Throw Catch Collective
Escalate showcases Australia’s best jugglers from Melbourne company Throw Catch Collective as they rip through an explosive hour of entertainment, pushing the boundaries of their art with a unique eye for musicality and timing. Effortlessly blending rhythm and movement with juggling, it’s stylish, playful and curious.
The cast of Escalate consists of jugglers Byron Hutton and Richard Sullivan, as well as composer and musician Samuel Kreusler. All three of these artists are held in high regard within their individual fields but together they produce performances that combine music and juggling in new ways that are exciting and joyous to watch.
Friday & Saturday
FRITZ
Emilie Bloom
Step into the charming world of FRITZ, an eccentric magician's rabbit. Witness the unfolding of a 'one-rabbit show' as FRITZ strives to recreate the magic tricks of their suddenly vanished magician. Magic, mayhem and many things gone wrong, can Fritz somehow save the day and the show? A nonstop, high-energy 50-minute roller coaster ride of the ridiculous. Slapstick, object puppetry and clowning, this is a heartwarming story from start to finish for the whole family.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday
FAMILY SHOW
Space Between
13 Eggs
Space Between plays with theatrical conventions; one character can see the audience, and the other can’t. They tumble through space, perch precariously on each other and handstand atop their old, weathered couch - which is... alive? Filled with meaningful moments and many belly laughs, these naive characters use exciting circus skills to explore how relationships can both complicate and enrich our lives. Featuring Spaghetti graduate and local Aleshanee Kelso and Tomas Correia.
Sunday
A Night at the Circus
Mario Queen of the Circus
A born showman and expert in the circus arts Mario comes brimming with unbridled passion. The Latin lothario’s hilarious show has wowed audiences all over the world. Mario’s unique mix of complex juggling tricks and universal sex appeal can only find release in the arena-rocking anthems of his favourite super-group, Queen.
A gift for the gab, Mario mixes character comedy, circus spectacular and raucous audience participation turning even the most intimate venues into a rocking arena spectacle or uniting the largest of venues into an arm-waving excuse for a crowd-surf.
NICHE The Variety Superstar Show
Neisha Murphy
Prepare to be mesmerised and have the time of your life while NICHE throws, balances, ducks and weaves with an array of unique props and that trademark style. Highlights include a rotating knife juggling platform, the famous five-ball triple stack rolabola and ah, did we mention she performs a WORLD FIRST face balancing SAW while skipping! Comedy, danger feats, silliness.......Not a show to miss!
Saturday and Sunday
FAMILY SHOW
The Pitts Family Circus
The Pitts Family Circus
In this day and age The Pitts are a true rarity, an actual performing family acrobatic troupe, all the children have performed from birth (sometimes before) and continue to do so, all working together to keep the family going, even in these somewhat trying times.
Blurring the lines between truth and fiction The Pitts perform a variety of rare and spectacular circus acts, always presented with a keen sense of dark laconic lunacy.
Saturday
FAMILY SHOW