Props to contemporary circus practitioners where props are due. In recent years the old-fashioned archetypes - the big top, clown cars, elephants balancing on giant beach balls - have been replaced by far more earnest sensibilities. Contemporary circus has evolved into a medium as relevant and provocative as its more respected cousins, theatre and dance. In fact, on some occasions, the physical hyperbole of aerialists, acrobats, tumblers and contortionists has been used to explore emotional extremes that other performance methods struggle to reach.
Company 2's Sediment is a production in this vein; taking its inspiration from Dostoyevsky's existentialist tome, Notes From The Underground, this production wears its ivory towered aspirations on its sleeve. While the execution - as far as the circus elements are concerned - is high quality, this production is sorely missing any cohesive dramaturgy.
Largely, this lack of theatrical logic makes the connection to the source material somewhat obscure, but at times there are more significant issues, when the dynamic between the two performers, Alice Muntz and David Carberry, takes on an inexplicable undercurrent of physical abuse. That's not to say that depictions of violence have no place on stage, but it seems clear that this implied dynamic isn't invoked to serve the storytelling. Instead of the profundity this show clearly hopes to illicit, it's all just fun and games until somebody gets hurt.
Company 2 presents Sediment at The Big House, Gasworks to 1 Oct. Part of the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival
