Elixir

Three mad scientists concoct an elixir that endows recipients with strength and stamina. It’s not the subtlest of storylines with which to underpin a circus show, but that problem might fade into irrelevance when Head First Acrobats take their kit off.

The real reason we’re here is to see three well-sculpted men from Melbourne perform a series of flips and one-handed balances. Elixir’s fairly flimsy plot, in which an experiment is horribly botched and threatens to unleash a zombie apocalypse upon the audience, can be forgiven – this is a polished, agile hour of muscular circus skills. The trio combine a range of slapstick routines involving the usual tripping and falling which, at the last moment, morph into unexpected somersaults and delicately coordinated collisions.

Head First bank on solid crowd-pleasing songs to back them up; notably, a recurring undead motif that utilises Michael Jackson’s Thriller. While there’s not a whole lot of depth to the performance, there are some genuinely impressive stunts, from a remarkably well controlled segment on a precarious, unsupported ladder to a captivating dance inside a cyr wheel. In particular, the line they draw between entertaining and abusing an audience is soundly judged.

There are far more innovative circus shows at the Fringe but Head First have still injected Elixir with plenty of energy and effort. It’s slick and striking, able to poke fun at itself as well as the genre as a whole. In fact, trimming some of the jokes and limiting the annoying glances might help us engage with even greater vulnerability.