Sydney Fringe Festival is back and has added a new venue to its portfolio: Fool’s Paradise, a circus Big Top tent taking over the Entertainment Quarter, with four headlining acrobatic circus acts, along with another 25 different shows performing throughout the festival.
Thomas Gorham is the director of Fool’s Paradise as well as being a physical theatre performer himself. He’s put together a collection of four shows that cover a range of styles to cater for different types of audiences.
Return of the Godz is the story of five godz who descend from Mount Olympus and bring the myths of ancient Greece to life through physical acrobatic performances wrapped up in an adults-only, joyously silly story.
All-Star Circus is a family-friendly showcase of performers and comedians.
Another family-friendly show that you can float away with is the Flying Bubble Show, a dreamy theatrical experience of bubble artistry suspended in the air.
And for one afternoon only, you can rejoice in the camp silliness of The Big Top Drag Bunch, when the cream of Sydney’s drag royalty descend on the big top to bring their own queer mayhem to the big top.
Together these shows are postmodern entertainment – self-referential as well as accommodating lots of pop culture and ideas, performed through intense physical theatre with strong storytelling wrapped around truly astounding athletic performances and tied together with wit. Thomas says: “we bring some of that highly athletic flavour, but also with a strong narrative structure.”
When Thomas is auditioning performers, he’s not just looking for talent and astounding athleticism but also for people that his company can tour with, as these shows travel around the world – so performers are often friends or become friends over the run of the shows.
Thomas sees some crossover between aspects of the Fool’s Paradise shows and burlesque performances, not just in terms of risqué performances, but more in the way that the community comes together to show their support for the performers; “we can always tell when there are burly girls in the audience!”
Fool’s Paradise will run from 26 August until 11 October at The Entertainment Quarter, 122 Lang Rd, Moore Park NSW 2021. Tickets available here.
