By Nick Pilgrim
Building in momentum and diversity with every passing season, this year the Melbourne Fringe Festival is bigger and better than ever. Packed with over 500 events across a multitude of genres, the three-week program is a international celebration of human creativity and heart.
One very special form of live entertainment, circus arts are a significant part of the renowned festival’s ever-expanding calendar. 2025 is no exception. The current listing features a solid handful of choices tailor-made for children and their families, or strictly adults only.
In my fifteen years as a reviewer for Theatre Matters, I have had the privilege of watching everything from acrobats to high-wire walkers and the like.
Some of the more notable presentations I have critiqued include:
- Briefs
- Circus Oz (Precarious)
- Club Vegas (The Spectacle)
- Hot Brown Honey
- Kapow
- Le Noir
- Railed
- Shaun The Sheep’s Circus Show
- Snuff Puppets (Swamp – At The End Of The World)
- Velvet
- Voila!
- Werk It – Tight Fit
The list goes on.
Based at their training facility in Preston, Circus Nexus is according to their website ‘a connected community for folks of all types and stripes’. The organisation also offers classes, holiday programs and educational workshops for every skill level and age group.
With its sixty-minute running time, Circus De Licious is a best of the best. As the name suggests, this rag-tag tasting platter features something for everyone.
The show’s ingenious hook kept my attention from the get-go. Threatening to fall apart by the seams at any given moment, viewers can soak up the show’s complex stage mechanics practically within arm’s reach.
Hosted by The Mighty Caesar, Circus De Licious never misses a beat between acts. As emcee, they do much of the heavy lifting – guiding the audience through the evening with a perfect blend of charisma and self-deprecating wit.
Arranged in successive order for their daredevil intensity, each routine is a fresh variation on breathtaking feats of skill. They include:
- A stunt cyclist who peddled the stage on the smallest transportation ever.
- A hoop acrobat and later, a trapeze worker who twisted themselves into every conceivable shape imaginable.
- A hula / belly dancer who transfixed us with the ability to twirl hoops using both her arms and legs either standing up or lying down.
- A juggler and tap dancer with astonishing hand-eye coordination.
- A silk specialist whose biggest claim to fame is doing her act suspended between two mountain tops.
- A fire-twirling adagio acrobatic team who soon plan to take their death-defying act to remote villages in the Philippines and pay their talent forward.
The simple narrative is spare and clean, allowing audience members to watch the show inside the company’s intimate performance space, unfolding with few distractions as possible. Pared back to basics, Circus De Licious always places its world-class entertainers front and centre.
Playing for three more performances until the festival’s closing weekend, why not consider this high-energy, exciting twist on familiar territory. You won’t be disappointed.
