Review by Kate Gaul
0471 Acro Physical Theatre from Taiwan presented one of my top ten favorite works from last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, “Duo” – which I also have the pleasure of revisiting in Adelaide earlier this year. “Duo” is for adults. This year I am pleased to have seen their offering for years 3 and above, “I am the Boss”.
The company founded in 2020 by Sun, Cheng-Hsueh and Hsia Ling, the troupe is one of the few circus troupes in Taiwan that specializes in stacking acrobatics and is dedicated to using the unique body aesthetics of acrobatics to create visual images that defy gravity and turn the theatre into a world of imagination. Stacking is what it says – humans piling higher and higher into the air via each other. 0471 Acro Physical Theatre started with small-scale experimental performances. In 2022, the troupe embarked on the “Research Project on the Training System of Stacking Techniques”, which aims at bringing more diverse circus arts to Taiwan by developing stacking acrobatics through training and innovation and creating artistic and commercial performances.
In “I am the Boss” three acrobats play siblings left home alone. Games ensue and things go crazy. Set in a familiar looking room with a couch, cushions and table on which are places familiar objects – bags of sweets, popcorn, family photo and so on. There are food fights, pillow fights, fight fights – a done through acrobatics and high energy fun.
The three, dressed in cute pyjama looking costumes, battle for dominance. They fight and make up, feel guilty and start fighting again. All the kid emotions are on display. Popcorn gets spilt. The work is charmingly choreographed to a continual soundtrack and when the performers are not at ground level cartwheeling and flipping, they fly high in the air, balance on each other and do other amazing super-human feats! It is thrilling for the younger audiences and adults alike.
The company have devised some appropriate audience participation too. It’s all voluntary of course. In the circus tent in which they perform the cast can access the audience easily and stage a chase around the house complete with bubble blowing guns. Some members of the audience get to play with the bubble blowers and one youngster is taken on stage to become part of an acrobatic trick. This is all competed seamlessly proving that physicality communicates to all ages if intentions are clear. The audience are deliciously delirious by the end of the performance.
I can’t imagine anyone not loving 0471 Acro Physical Theatre’s “I am the Boss”.
Image Supplied