Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble

Produced by Circa and Chamäleon Berlin

Co-produced by La Comète

Direction and Stage Design | Yaron Lifschitz

Sound Designer | Ori Lichtik

Lighting Design | Alex Berlage

Costume Design | Libby McDonnell

Wolfgang Hoffmann / Aurora NovaWorldwide booking & coordination

Due to the nature of live performance, the individuals in the Circa Ensemble are subject to change. A current and accurate list of acrobats involved in the performance will be available closer to the performance date.

Production Images by Andy Phillipson and Courtesy of Underbelly Edinburgh by Michael Aiden 

Circa acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. 

Yaron Lifschitz – Director

Yaron Lifschitz makes shows. Big ones, small ones, and ones that defy easy categorisation. More than 80 productions have toured across six continents and played to over two million people picking up a shelf’s worth of awards including six Helpmanns, The ISPA Distinguished Artist Award and the Australia Council Theatre Award.
As CEO and Artistic Director of Circa he has brought circus to the Barbican, string quartets and acrobats to Brooklyn Academy of Music, four years of performances to Berlin and major shows to major festivals and venues around the world. He’s created strange, beautiful things in tents, concert halls, spiegeltents, and opera houses as well as cemeteries and cathedrals. His film work has appeared at the Berlin and Melbourne Film Festivals. 
Yaron was the founding Director of the Australian Museum’s Theatre Unit, he has taught directing at NIDA and ATYP and has directed opera, concerts and events. In 1999 he was the first Artistic Director of Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus which, in 2004, he transformed into Circa. In 2018 he was Creative Lead of Festival 2018, the cultural program of the21st Commonwealth Games - one of the most ambitious arts events in Queensland’s history. 
At the heart of Yaron’s work is restless curiosity and a fierce belief in the power of performance to connect and transform. He describes hiscreations as "love letters to a species that not always easy to like".

Libby McDonnell – Costume Design

Libby McDonnell is a designer, director, and creative lead. As Circa’s costume designer, she has created costumes for over 40 productions, co-directed major works, and led key community programs, including the pilot ofCircability. Libby holds a FirstClass Honours degree from Queensland College of Art and an Associate Degree in Dance from QUT. Her career has moved fluidly between performance, education, touring, and leadership. Libby is known for her clear eye and unwavering belief in the power of artto connect.

Ori Lichtik – Sound Designer 

Musician, member of the artistic crew of L-E-V Dance Company of Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar, DJ and drummer, Lichtik is one of the founders of the Tel-Aviv techno scene in the 1990s where he started his career as a DJ and producer of techno parties and raves. Since 2006, Ori has been collaborating with Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar as a musician in the artistic team. Rather than composing the soundtracks, Ori performs in L-E-V performances in which he constructs, plays and characterises the music in each performance. The uniqueness of Lichtik’s work is the combination of thevarious musical worlds into an evolving and refined soundtrack, full of passion and groove, which alongside the choreography gives the spectator a complete and hypnotic experience. Lichtik soundtracks are influenced by different styles and textures, from industrial and African tribe recordings, through hip-hop to baroque music. Ori’s music is one of the most prominent and unusual hallmarks of Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar’s dance performances. Over the years, Ori has created various works for L-E-V, dance companies and opera houses around the world. Lichtik has created alongside Sharon & Gai throughout the choreographic process, reflecting off of the dancers’ movements, and as often inspiring and prompting them with the tone and pace of his percussive sounds and rhythms.

Alexander Berlage – Lighting Designer

Alexander Berlage is an award-winning director and lighting designer. He is co-artistic director of the Old Fitz Theatre. Alexander has won the Sydney Theatre Award Best Direction of a Musical for the past two years in a row –for AMERICAN PSYCHO and CRY-BABY at Hayes Theatre Co. As a lighting designer, Alexander has worked for Sydney Theatre Company, Opera Queensland, Circa, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sydney Chamber Opera, Sydney Dance Company, Griffin Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Hayes Theatre Co., Australian Theatre for Young People, andRedline Productions. His smash-hit, sold-out production of AMERICAN PSYCHO won 9 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction of a Musical, Best Production of a Musical, and Best Lighting Design of an Independent Production and more. Alexander’s production of GLORIA was nominated for 2 Sydney Theatre Awards. Alexander’s production of CRY-BABY received rave reviews, sold out and won 4 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Production of a Musical. The same year, his productions of THERE WILL BE A CLIMAX, HOME INVASION and CRY-BABY received a combined total of 12 Sydney Theatre Award nominations. For THERE WILL BE A CLIMAX, Alexander was nominated for Best Direction of an Independent Production and Best Independent Production. Alexander’s directing work includes: DIARY OF ONE WHO DISAPPEARED, FUTURE REMAINS (with Sydney Festival), RESONANT BODIES (Sydney Chamber Opera); YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, AMERICAN PSYCHO, CRY-BABY (Hayes Theatre Co.); GLORIA (Outhouse Theatre Co); THEREWILL BE A CLIMAX (Redline Productions/NIDA); HOME INVASION (An Assorted Few/Old 505); and THE VAN DE MAAR PAPERS (An Assorted Few/PACT).Alexander holds a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Production) and a Master of Fine Art (Directing) from the National Institute for Dramatic Art, Sydney. In 2019, Alexander was awarded a Mike Walsh Fellowship.

About Circa

Circa: circus that moves the world.

Circa is one of the world’s great performing arts companies. Since 2004, they have called Brisbane, Australia, home while touring the world, captivating audiences in over 45 countries and reaching more than two million people. Their award-winning performances have earned standing ovations, rave reviews and sold-out shows across six continents.

Everything they do is fuelled by their core values: quality, audacity, humanity. They are at the forefrontof the new wave of contemporary Australian circus, redefining the art form by showcasing how extreme physicality can forge powerful and emotive experiences. 

They are relentless in the way they push boundaries, blending movement, dance, theatre and circus. 

Under the visionary leadership of Yaron Lifschitz, and in collaboration with their extraordinary ensemble of circus artists, they craft a diverse array of productions that constitute “a revolution in the spectacle of circus” (Les Echos). 

Each year they tour their shows across the world and premiere multiple new creations. They are a staple at prestigious festivals and venues in New York, London, Berlin and Montreal as well as throughout Queensland and across Australia.

Their extensive engagement programs, including Circa Academy, Circability and Circa Cairns (a First Nations-led circus initiative) provide access, participation and professional development outcomes. They have delivered major projects including the Creative Lead on the Commonwealth Games Festival 2018 and managing Artour for the Queensland Government.

They invite you to join them as they continue to “redraw the limits to which circus can aspire” (The Age). 

Discover more about Circa by subscribing to enews at circa.org.au and following the company on facebook.com/circacontemporarycircus, Instagram.com/circapresents, and via #circacircus