There is something utterly joyful about watching highly skilled and playful adults clowning around.

Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus is just that: wondrous circus skills and magical illusions melded with humorous physical theatre and classic gags which are all set to the exceptional music of Mozart.  

Mozart, while obviously a genius, has often been portrayed as child-like, impulsive and loving a good joke, so circus seems an excellent medium to have some fun while introducing a new generation to his music.

Sound designer and composer Quincy Grant has cleverly rescored such masterpieces as ‘Eine Kleine Nacht Musik’, ‘Symphony Number 40’, ‘Piano Concerto number 21’, ‘Voi che Sepete’from the Marriage of Figaro and ‘The Queen of the Night’ aria from The Magic Flute to name a few.

What I love is the instrumentation. While much is still orchestra, it also has playful toy piano/ glockenspiel sounds and jangling tambourines combined with the wonderful live playing by Gareth Chin on the accordion.

Created by Yaron Lifschitz and Benjamin Knapton from the Circa Ensemble (Australia), the story centres around a young woman (Katherine O’Keeffe), quietly celebrating her birthday. She puts on an old record of Mozart music which draws the legend himself (Paul O’Keeffe as Mozart) out of the fridge to play. And play they do, displaying a connection and trust between the performers which is palpable.

The scaffolding of this entertaining journey is spot on. A gentle beginning of acro-dance choreography with flawless lifts, turns and tumbles that crescendos to a display of acrobatic feats on bicycles and chairs balanced on bottles that make us hold our breath in anticipation or gasp audibly – some even calling out “Don’t do it!”

The strength and craft of these two performers is astounding – I have never seen a woman on ballet point balance a man on her shoulders for a start!

All this is interspersed with slapstick comedy acts like with the tricksy spotlight, the music stand that won’t behave itself, a matrix-style fight and the conducting stick surprise. Even though these gags are repeated over and over again, there is enough modification in the scherzo (joke) with vocal and character interaction, tempo and dynamic change to help build to the inevitable climatic end which keep this audience laughing and cheering.  

We are so fortunate to have theatre pieces such as this from companies like Circa Ensemble in this Capital E festival. Children deserve to see theatre of this level. I reviewed their Carnival of the Animals four years ago and it’s great to see they are still producing such excellent work. 

My kids (6 and 8) also describe this show with words like “funny, crazy, scary,” with exclamations like “How did he do that?” and statements of “amazing but also it frightened me too! I was worried they might get hurt.”

Now where did I put that record? I want a party like them.

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