Elixir

Head First Acrobats

Australia's outstanding contribution to evolving contemporary circus must be the emergence of the adult variety—dazzling, physical, sensual and totally inclusive (i.e. QEr’D). With a touch of Aussie bluff, they incorporate plotlines driven by imaginative musical soundscapes— recorded and live. The result is a familiar cup of quality coffee from your local cafe. You don’t know how good it is till you start to travel! Around half the shows featured at the Circus Hub at the most recent pre-COVID Edinburgh Fringe were Australian. There is enough quality contemporary circus in Adelaide for a bottomless cup.

For Adelaide, the energetic lads of Head First Acrobats reprise their previous outing, Elixir. The show embraces a nonsensical zombie/apocalypse set-up. We meet our crew as lab scientists downing various elixirs to assess their relative effects better.

A Head First Acrobats show is like an opera. It has a plot, but its direction is entirely incidental to its purpose. The far-fetched story-line is a mere excuse for a dazzling array of extraordinary acts of body gymnastics.

Head First Acrobats' boys maybe bad and mad, but they’re not very dangerous to know. They admit their speciality is “fun and dumb...”. “That’s all we do...” says co-director Tom Gorham. It’s a goof-ball description of the troupe’s particular and endearing brand of “camp slapstick”.

The troupe is a boys’-own gang let loose for an adventure play date. They have the bods, cheek and charisma to be extraordinarily attractive, especially to each other... It’s like an infectious Carry On movie cast with acrobatically-buffed boys. Take your granny.