fringe: a simple space

Gravity and Other Myths and I go all the way back to 2011 when we saw Freefall... then it was A Simple Space in 2013, 2015 and 2016 followed by their Festival show, Backbone in 2017... then this year we went back for another viewing of A Simple Space

To put it simply (pun entirely at your discretion), A Simple Space is a show I could watch 100 times and not get bored.

Not only because the show keeps evolving, even if only in small ways, or with the addition of new performers, but because I love being a part of the energy that GOM has, if only for an hour at a time.

I've said if before and I'll say it again (and in fact I said it to someone while waiting in line), GOM are the group I judge all other acrobats against. They're the gold standard as far as I'm concerned, both in the way they put their shows together but also in how they interact with each other and with the audience.

And there's also the fact that they're all so goddamn talented.

Joining the original cast of Lachlan Binns, Jacob Randell, Martin Schreiber and musician Elliot Zoerner once again are Lachlan Harper and Joanne Curry along with new(er)comers (both of whom were in Backbone) Meike Lizotte and Jack Manson.

I know I say this every single time, but the Lachlans remain my personal favourites... Binns because of his cheeky energy (and I was very lucky enough to get given an excellently rendered balloon dog from him during the show... although thanks to an unfortunate picnic table accident after the show it didn't live long enough to be photographed) and Harper just because of the way he moves through space (and those backflips... so many backflips).

The fact that they're both so damn gorgeous doesn't hurt in the slightest.

It was interesting to see some of the tricks I'm very familiar with performed by different people, made it all feel fresh again.

I also love the way they ramp the energy up the longer the show goes on, especially during the sequence were the female performers are being tossed from hand to hand, they should all be exhausted by that point in the show, but the chatter back and forth really lifts the energy in the room (doubly so because of how damn hot it was during the midday show).

I could ramble on all day about this trick or that trick or how great a particular sequence was, but at the end of the day they're always excellent, they're always worth seeing and there are too many reasons to list as to why they're my gold standard for circus and physical theatre.

So if you've never seen them, you have 7 chances left this Fringe... don't even wait, just do it!

yani's rating: 5 balloon animals out of 5