On Friday the 26th of June, the Fruit Fly Circus, Albury based Youth circus school, opened their new show to a local audience at the Albury Entertainment Centre.
The family friendly plot follows the adventures of a young girl exploring the space under her bed and her own imagination.
The show was opening in Albury before going on to Sydney, Canberra and then to Istanbul, Turkey.
The international part of the tour is a unique experience for the performers aged from 9 to 19.
The show has been developed by the students, staff and trainers of the circus school over the past year and the months of planning, staging and refining culminated in a sold out show to an audience of diverse ages.
Venue based theatre technician Brent Scott was greatly impressed with how the show, which will go on to much larger venues in metropolitan areas, translated to the regional venue;
“There are many challenges that need to be overcome when adapting a show with these kinds of performance heights and a wide variety of safety concerns need to be addressed”
“We spend a lot of time talking to Fruit Flies staff and have lots of meetings to sort out how we go about changing our set up to accommodate the acrobat’s routines.”
“But,” he continued “the smaller performance space and the proximity of the audience made for an intimate performance.”
Audience feedback was also positive across different age demographics, with parents and children both delighting in this locally fostered circus performance.
Chelsea was amongst those in the audience and expressed her enthusiasm for the circus, both as a source of entertainment and as a local institution;
“It’s amazing to have such a nationally renowned circus in our area, and we are so lucky to be able to see the opening night of this show, especially considering that their next show is at the Sydney Opera House.”
But 3 year old, Flynn was universally positive about the whole performance, making it very clear that he did not like the “sad clown”.