[2015004] 3 Steps Ahead
Point & Flex Circus @ Producers Warehouse
6:00pm, Wed 11 Feb 2015
After a shaky start, 2014’s Temper was a thoroughly enjoyable show, and demonstrated that Point & Flex Circus really knew what they were doing; that alone had them pencilled into the Shortlist. The opportunity to go to the Producers Launch Party – and stitch together four shows in a row – sealed the deal.
But the Point & Flex numbers have halved since Temper, leaving just Marina and Taylor performing 3 Steps Ahead. And they reprise a lot of their strengths from last year’s showcase in solo pieces scattered throughout the show: Taylor displays the more traditional acrobatic skills of stretching, balance, and hoops; Marina veers towards the freakshow side of the circus, with glass walking, juggling, and a weird & wonderful segment where she inserts a paintbrush up her nose, blockhead style, and proceeds to copy a picture (itself selected through cleaver-throwing).
The spine of the performance is the random selection of timed games that the audience helps order (through the shuffling of cards); these games ranged from assembling and flicking paper frogs into a glass, to eating a cookie without using their hands, to balancing five die on a mouth-held pop-stick. Some of the games are terribly one-sided – blowing up ten balloons is much harder than picking up cotton balls using only your nose – but that just created a sense of good-natured fun between the performers and the audience.
After all the little competitions and games, Marina won this evening’s performance by the barest of margins: eleven points to ten. But (to horribly shoe-horn in a cliché) the audience were the real winners this evening: 3 Steps Ahead was a fun, personable, and entertaining display of Point & Flex’s abilities.
(Of course, the other notable memory associated with this performance was the fact that many of the Gravity & Other Myths crew (who mentor Point & Flex) were in the audience. I said hello, fawned over them & their work, and received some thankyous in return… surprising, to be sure, but super-appreciated!)
(4) 3 Steps Ahead: Much enthusiasm and creativity in freak-influenced acrobatic antics. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 11, 2015