The Spiegeltent is back.
Newcastle welcomed a new production, The Party, from Strut & Fret this week, full of its trademark sexy styling, and energetic music, dance, acrobatics and comedy.
Their publicity calls it circus cabaret, and Newcastle has developed a strong taste for it.
Strut & Fret director Scott Maidment says the Newcastle Spiegeltent shows sell more than 5000 tickets before the show itself is advertised.
Century Venues director Greg Khoury, charged with revitalising the Victoria Theatre, has often told the story of how the Spiegeltent's success in Newcastle is more remarkable than its run in Melbourne. Khoury speaks only as an observer - his company has no direct interest in the production.
For Khoury, it supports his belief that Newcastle is hungry for edgier, fringe-style acts.
There is no question the audience interaction and racy moments of nudity from Spiegeltent shows in Newcastle have provided many a memorable next-day conversation around the watercooler.
This show, The Party, conceived and directed by Maidment, with comedy direction by Spencer Novich and choreography from Kevin Maher, comes direct from a world premiere run at The Adelaide Fringe festival, and boasts some top talent.
The publicity line: "With a lavish stage set for the party of the century, this show lifts the curtain on the secret world of social climbers, rich kids, gate crashers and hangers-on. Giving us an uncensored insight into the debaucherous goings-on of a high-society soirée."
The tight cast of nine is loaded with excellent credentials in theatre and circus.
For starters, London West End theatre performers Danny Collins and Amanda Lindgren are part of the team, with Collins handling "emcee" duties on stage and Lindgren featuring in, among aspects, one of the show's rare solo song numbers.
Also on board, American Todd Degnan, who has toured and performed with Cirque US; Keaton M. Hentoff-Killian, who spent six years performing with top Australian contemporary circus company Circa; Canadian Angela Leigh McIlroy-Wagar, a performing artist known for aerial, contortion and waacking movement, who has performed with Cirque Soleil among other troupes; and New Zealand foot juggler Emma Phillips.
For Mclroy-Wagar, coming back from 18 months of no work at all during the COVID pandemic rekindled her passion for performing. In December she was set to perform in a show in her home city of Vancouver when it was stopped in its tracks day before it opened when the company declared bankruptcy. She put out some feelers for work and fielded a call from The Party director Scott Maidment, who offered her the contract for this show. She said yes, had a working visa in a day, and was on an airplane to Australia to begin rehearsals within three days.
"I perform and do circus because I want to share an emotion, or joy or excitement or passion with the audience - it's really to have an exchange of energy," she says. " People in an audience come from all walks of life, I always do it with the goal of hopefully improving their day a little bit, or changing what they are experiencing."
Collins was at home in London when Maidment contacted him about joining the cast of The Party.
"I had to think about it," he says. "This is a very different world than I've worked in before. But that's part of the allure of doing it. I got a message from Scott that said we have a new show, would you come to Australia for four months.
"I worked with Scott six years ago. He came to London. He did the circus coordination on Barnum, which was about PT Barnum. I've been in contact with him, but never able to come work for him. 'Cause normally it's at the last minute and I'm working on something else. So I messaged him back and said 'I don't want to leave my partner'. He was open to having a look at her."
And thus, Amanda Lindgren (Collins' partner) was also offered a contract on the show.
"We were really nervous when we got here," Collins says. "The whole point was to be far away from home and be really brave, with no consequences. Normally we work in such a closed industry in England . . . People know who you are. You want to preserve your reputation. It's more formal. We can just come in and be super crazy because there is a lot more freedom in cabaret and circus to choreograph your own stuff which you don't get in musical theatre. We knew it was an opportunity to make some bold suggestions."
The cast developed into a team during the run in Adelaide. They do their pre-show team huddle and hurrah, and all kick their favourite prop, Frank The Tank, before showtime. They have to bond, they have to have each other's backs.
The show is full of audience interaction, which means anything can happen.
"It's only been going for five weeks," Maidment says. "Last night in the rehearsal we were changing things, and over the course this next month we're going to be changing and tweaking things. Maybe the show people see at the start of the month will be a bit different than what they see in a month's time. That's part of the evolution of these things.
"That's a great thing. It keeps it fresh. I always say the audience are as much a part of the show as the performers, and so the way the audience reacts to different things informs about how we will change and alter things."
"I've done more shows in the circus," McIlroy-Wagar says. "There is no 'fourth wall', you really penetrate the thing. You are in people's faces. We want them involved."
The "fourth wall" is an acting phrase meaning an imaginary wall between actors and their audience. The wall is invisible to the audience and opaque to the actors. Thus, performers act as if the audience is not there.
But it does not apply to this show, where the audience is encouraged (pushed, pulled, coerced) to take part.
The buzz goes both ways, of course. The audience loves the engagement. But for the performers, it is the fuel of life.
McIlroy-Wagar will reach the tent more than two-and-a-half hours before the show. She takes an hour for her hair and own make-up, doing it all herself, a skill she learned in the circus world, and then it's stretching and exercises to prepare for the two-hour show, and a 30-minute warmdown after the show.
Collins preparation is less strenuous. "This isn't the most physical thing I've done," he says. "I need to make sure I'm limber and not going to pull anything. There's a lot of neck movement."
It's full-on engagement once on stage. There's no place to hide for the audience or the actors.
"Scott [Maidment] talks about the energy and the vibe in the room. He talks about making them feel like they are at a party, rather than sitting and watching a party. That's an important element that we try and achieve every night," Collins says.
"When you go out and the audience loves it, and you have a successful act, that is the icing on the cake," McIlroy-Wagar says.
"I was home-schooled. I had a pretty structured life. Do school and go train. I would, like, train 25 hours a week or more, sometimes 30, just to be able to do circus skills. Train. Train. Train. For musical theatre or dance, you do so much dance. Finally when you get on stage, it's just like you get to see the fruit of all of your labour and it's so rewarding and fulfilling. This is the payoff after so much hard work, sweat, blood and bruises and hustle."
Collins echoes the same thoughts in his own way.
"We love being watched," Collins says. "We love wowing and entertaining people. And being immersed in something, being in the flow - you don't get that in many other things in life. And also we love the reward of training so hard and this ongoing, get a job, not having a job, the work is a reward for the hard work. It's not a settled restful life. It's exciting."
