Hunger. Power. Sensuality.
A light pulses on the stage. From the darkness, bodies pounce, pause, and hungrily survey the audience. From the first few seconds, Circa’s Wolf captivates its prey.
Created by director Yaron Lifschitz, Wolf is an ensemble of ten acrobats who leap, twist and claw across the stage with raw physicality. For one hour, we are treated to breathtaking displays of balance, strength and beauty. Circus combines with dance, as performers connect and compete as part of a primal ‘pack’.
The minimalist backdrop heightens the life and energy that barrels from one end of the set to the other. The blank stage is a canvas to be filled with powerful movements and shapes, from the performers who stand atop shoulders, swing from ropes, and physically throw each other across the space.
A pulsating soundtrack by DJ Ori Lichtik throbs and pants in time with the prowling performers. Figure-hugging designer leotards from Libby McDonnell accentuate the masculine, feminine and animalistic – every line, curve and muscle are drawn along black and flesh-coloured lines. This gives a dual effect of depicting both a powerful predator that can blend into its surroundings, as well as a vulnerable sensuality.
The acting and expressiveness from the performers was perhaps the most impressive next to the choreography. A story is skilfully told through body language and facial expression rather than dialogue, displaying distinctive characters who lust, fight, and persevere. Comedy is interspliced amid suspense. Many characters displayed eroticism and curiosity, as well as rejection and individualism. There were moments of sensuality, fear, and competition. You got a sense of the dutiful, of the arrogant, of the desperate, and an arc for each character.
But the strength and agility, as well as gravity-defying acts, are what drew appreciative gasps and applause from the audience. To see such feats of human strength, executed with precise control and discipline in a way that appears free and effortless, is a testament to human creativity. We had the chance to connect with the primal, the animalistic, the natural. Visual art and athleticism that cannot be replicated by machines. There’s a unique thrill in seeing skilled live performance cultivated through years of dedication. The experience was completed with a standing ovation, from an audience starved for something ‘real’. to complete the experience.
If you want something a bit different, if you want to be reconnected to what humans can achieve, and if you want to see acrobatics performed by hot people in bodysuits, Wolf is a sensation.
REVIEWER: Julian Holt