Adelaide Fringe

Fringe Review: Slumber

The performance begins with a five young women asleep on a canopied mattress and moves into a sexy dance sequence, culminating in a spectacular flying silk act with the bed canopy.

Presented by Hideaway
Reviewed 12 March 2017

The performance begins with a five young women asleep on a canopied mattress and moves into a sexy dance sequence, culminating in a spectacular flying silk act with the bed canopy. The friends are preparing for a night out and we are treated to some amazing contortions involving putting on shoes – you need to see it to believe it! For me this was the most polished part.

The circus and dance elements are truly impressive, having both a classical elegance and the toughness of the street, with pounding music as well as incredible acrobatics, trapeze work and contortions one can barely believe. While the choreography on stage impressed, the action in and around the audience somewhat missed the mark.

Performing all over the venue, the cast ran around the raked seating, suddenly appeared at the bar, or up behind the audience making the action hard to follow. Add to this, Lee Hubilla’s clumsy discursions into going on a date with a particular audience member, about lamingtons and asking for audience input, and I completely lost the plot.

Hubilla, playing the friend who is picked on by the others, goes totally psychotic and decides to kill all her friends – with the assistance and encouragement of the audience. Only the first murder of the sole male in the cast Joren Dawson, a superb acrobat on the Chinese Pole, displays any real style and menace as he is lured into a false sense of security by the seemingly sexual advances of Hubilla – just before she cuts his throat and blood sprays everywhere.

Be warned there is a lot of blood spraying and dripping all over the place – including the front row of the audience – in Slumber. However, the ‘schlock’ (thanks Jack) value of the blood is more than made up for by the opportunity to see such incredible acrobatics and dance.

Reviewed by Jan Kershaw

Rating out of 5: 4

Venue:  Menagerie at RCC
Season:  13, 15-19 March
Duration:  70 mins
Tickets:  $33
Bookings:  https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/slumber-circus-dance-blood

https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au

http://hideawaycircus.com/

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