It's unbelievable what 30 metres of rope can do.
Melbourne's One Fell Swoop Circus presents their much-lauded production of 'By A Thread' at Redland Performing Arts Centre (RPAC).
Seven acrobats, no nets or safety harnesses, and 30 metres of white rope. 'By A Thread' sees performers combining dynamic acrobatic skills and poignant physical theatre as they explore physical, emotional and relational tension.
Combining ambitious concepts with visceral physicality, One Fell Swoop constantly aim to present works with high levels of circus skills and rich, dramatic perspectives in mind. They've played around the world including in Shanghai, Philadelphia, New Zealand, France, and here in Australia too, of course.
Here, 'By A Thread' Creator/Director and One Fell Swoop Co-Founder Charice Rust chats to us about the show playing at RPAC.
First of all, you created this show! What got you inspired to put it together?
Aerialists are often isolated from other performers, high up in the air on their apparatus. We designed our unusual rope system to break this right down so it is the hands and strength of the ensemble members that hold each other up. The rope apparatus becomes the perfect medium for exploring the trust, risk and joy inherent in the everyday relationships we have as human beings, and this was the inspiration for creating the show.
Tell us a bit about the story behind the formation of One Fell Swoop Circus.
I credit the start of my circus path with working on my grandparents' sheep farm. I relished the hard physical labour, the endurance of getting through a day or a mob of sheep. And I also loved defying the expectations of what bodies are capable of. I found circus classes as a teenager and it wasn’t strange to be a strong girl, it was encouraged! It opened up new and exciting challenges for me physically, new ways to push myself. But more importantly it opened up to me a whole world of telling stories, exploring ideas, and sharing emotions through physicality. This is what drew me to circus. Circus as an art form is so rich with evocative meaning – it has within it extreme examples of what it’s like to go through everyday life. I made the company with my partner Jonathan who has a background in maths and physics. We are excited by combining unusual apparatus and interesting physics concepts with human resilience and emotion, and so we formed One Fell Swoop Circus.
As company Co-Founder, what’s your goal when it comes to what One Fell Swoop offers its audiences?
In our work we aim to connect with audiences on a level deeper than spectacle, to give them an intimate experience of acrobatics. They might never actually try to climb a rope themselves, but I’m certain everyone has had a moment in their life where they have felt that they are struggling to hang on, to pull themselves up, bit by bit, to keep aiming higher. Even though acrobatics might seem so out of the ordinary, we try to relate to peoples’ lives through our work. This also means letting them share in the joy you can get out of throwing yourself, acrobatically or figuratively, into someone else’s arms.
For those new to the work, tell us a bit about what to expect.
In 'By A Thread' we use a single piece of rope, 30 metres long. This rope hangs down like two ropes in a gym. However instead of being rigged to the roof, our rope is hung between two pulleys and so the two ropes become a counterweight system. If an acrobat climbs one of the ropes, the rest of the ensemble must provide an equal force on the other rope to keep them from falling. Instead of rigging and hardware, it is the hands and muscles of the ensemble that keep each other in the air. This was such a perfect physical manifestation of relationship or connectedness that we built our whole show about relating to others. To engage with another person, a stranger, a friend, a lover, takes trust. Trust that you’ll be kind, that you won’t hurt me, that you’ll be there for me, that I’ll be there for you. We place our trust in people and with that there is always the risk of being hurt. But it is that trust and risk that can lead to great joy.
The show has been received well all over the place. What do you think keeps audiences coming back to it?
Our mixture of exhilarating acrobatics (in the air seven metres off the ground) and authentic human relationships on stage. We had an audience member come up to us after the show once and say “you looked like you were having so much fun, I just wanted to join in with you all”.
What are you looking forward to about bringing this show to Redland Performing Arts Centre?
We are thrilled to finally be able to bring 'By A Thread' to Redland Performing Arts Centre after two postponements due to lockdowns over the last couple of years! It will be the Queensland premiere of 'By A Thread' and we are so excited. It’s especially exciting for our performer Latonya who grew up in Boonah and now lives in Brisbane.
Describe the show in four words.
Trust, risk, joy, rope.
'By A Thread' plays Redland Performing Arts Centre 7 October.
