The Space Between

Original Production

September 10-October 2, 2004, Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane

Original Producers

Circa

Description of Work

The Space Between is an intimate contemporary circus production that uses deconstructed circus languages to illuminate the hidden spaces between and within people.

For the past five years Circa has been researching new pathways through contemporary circus.

In its attempt to discover if there could be a serious and satisfying nexus between circus and contemporary arts practice, Circa explored a range of techniques, theoretical models and performance conventions. These included improvisation, multi-media, cross art-form collaborations, the development of an entirely new set of performance language and a coherent training system. These inquires have produced a number of shows of varying quality. With The Space Between, Circa has delivered a concentrated and tremendously powerful distillation of its post-circus vision.

The Space Between eschews narrative and character, though is full of suggestions of both. Three performers meet and explore themselves, each other and, most importantly, the spaces between them, in a range of intense physical encounters. The entire gamut of circus languages is referred to but there are almost no circus apparatuses or conventional acts. These are lived on the inside. Instead bodies collide, balance, tumble and hang. Circa’s revolutionary Four Space Theory – a taxonomic breakdown of the intricate codes an audience uses to watch live performance and the basis of Circa’s live improvisation – is used to connect these physical actions with the stage space, the performers and the spaces between and around them.

Set against a contemporary soundscape which includes abstract sound, special/architectural noise and several songs by Jacques Brel (plus a little of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack), The Space Between is a relentlessly powerful re-examining of the limits of bodies and/in relationships. The show features visually arresting sequences with performers bathed in the down light of a video projector processing variables to the music.

In performance, The Space Between has a highly specific choreography which is, nevertheless, substantially improvised. This gives it the feeling of being both absolutely non-arbitrary and disconcertingly unknown. Dramaturgically, the show unravels from the initial solo scene of a man tumbling and falling, regaining his balance and falling again. Every possible combination of two and one is played out across a variety of acts, moods and relationships.

Lighting, staging, video and sound are rigorously integrated into a dramatic whole. The show is structured in 4 sections, each of which explores a particular set of groupings and relationships but which flow together to offer a continuous journey. 

The Space Between occupies a unique position in contemporary circus and physical theatre – breaking the polarization between larrikin iconoclasm and character driven narrative. The Space Between stands out by leaping into the heart of contemporary performance while staying faithful to its grounding in high level circus skills.