After boarding school you went on to circus school - had you always wanted to be an aerialist? Were you the type of child who loved climbing trees and scaling heights?
I always feel safe at heights - it’s the best place to escape everyone. I spent a lot of time up trees and on roofs - it wasn’t to show off, more to find time to be in my head. I began training at London’s National Centre for Circus Arts at age 20, after trying flying trapeze in a circus school in Paris at 19. There was a terrifying coach called Jean Palacy, who shouted in French and wasn’t at all interested in a skinny English girl “having a go”. But it got me hooked. I didn’t go to uni, so this was a “career path” in my mind anyway.
Perhaps not the “usual” career path many children consider . . . were you always interested in the arts/ creative space - even as a child?
Yes. My imagination was in overdrive most of the time. I grew up in a huge house and gardens where I spent most of my home time up a tree with fairies, or avoiding ghosts in the dark corners of the house. My father was a film/TV director and producer so I loved vying for the attention of any actors who came to stay, and was always trying to get a part in one of his productions. I was mostly unsuccessful.
Circus- and cabaret-style acts aren’t really like plays or films. It’s perhaps a freer space than more scripted stuff, enabling people to really explore themes and their own identity in a way. Should we be encouraging more young adults and teenagers to go to festivals and more cabaret-style stuff than traditional sit-down theatre as part of their arts education?
It totally depends on the individual and what speaks to them. Because “traditional” theatre is very much scripted storytelling, it can have an incredible impact on its audience, if targeted right to the relevant demographic. It is so valuable and I believe more young people should try going to the theatre! My world, and what I produce, is equally an important platform and environment. It is much more open to interpretation and can be visually and sensorially more exciting and stimulating. The festival environment is so great for young people to dip their toes in something different without any particular commitment. Festivals, street shows and funded public performances are an amazing way to grow future audiences and future performers. I love circus and festivals, always have done. My mum traded a horse to a circus when I was very young- I fed the owner’s elephants and saw the flying trapeze. I love the freedom and openness to all possibilities - circus has always been a place for misfits and the extraordinary. It’s a playground, and in our society, is open to all.
So what can audiences expect to find in the playground of Absolutely! Cabaret and why should they come to see it?
I love that the type of cabaret that I produce, where it’s a collection of diverse acts but threaded with a theme/topic, is quite an adventure. It’s a rock ‘n’ rollercoaster where you know it’s going to be exciting and unpredictable - I inject some thought-provoking layers, some politics, sex and humour. I always take the privilege of having a “platform” with great consideration. The stage is and always has been an opportunity to suggest views and provoke thoughts, as well of course to thoroughly entertain.
That platform comes at a cost in a way, the arts world isn’t traditionally well paid . . . how can Aotearoa grow and nurture more creatives and give more creatives and performers a platform?
France is such a good example of supporting the creative sector. They have a system where if you perform a certain number of contracts/days a year, any “off” period that same year will be paid support by the Government so the practitioner or group can afford to train and create new works. Having capped numbers, capped funds and periodic application dates in NZ stifles and restricts the creative sector here.
You have yourself made a career from being a creative - first as a performer, now as a performance director. How did you get from aerialist to what you do now?
Being a professional aerialist, your body is worked extremely hard, and consequently has a “best before” date, and mine was up after having my second child at 40. I’d been involved in all aspects of creating performance before that anyway, living with a very DIY warehouse rave collective in 90s Europe that put on massive illegal parties. We did everything; accessing and equipping the building, publicity, bars, entry, scrap-sculpture installations, DJs etc. I just decided to add trapeze stunts. So when I got to NZ, I went to an early Splore and suggested they had more performance and even a cabaret. They took a chance on me and I’ve been doing that line of work ever since. It keeps me connected to the performing arts scene worldwide, and allows me to be creative even without performing myself. I’m therefore a self-titled “performance director” but also a programmer, curator, producer, depending on the production.
Do you think circus-style performances are gender specific or can be guilty of objectifying women in some ways with the skimpy costumes and so on?
I believe that women in early circus found a place where they were free to be strong and extrovert, away from Victorian society’s restrictive expectations of the female. Women in particular have to walk a tightrope (pun happened) between being objectified and owning their power. For example, conventional burlesque is very much about the tease/build-up to revealing almost everything. The self-love is great, but I’m not convinced it’s the most interesting finale or the most interesting statement women can make. There was a hot minute of 50 years or so where female circus performers were expected to wear sequinned leotards and high heels, mere eye candy to their acrobatic male counterparts. With the advent of contemporary circus such as France’s Archaos in the 1980s, women began to throw that off and express themselves in any way they chose. Now, in liberal societies at least, all genders are able to be on stage where their skills supersede any need to judge gender or view as simply titillation.
I’m guessing you admire the work of Archaos - who else do you admire / look up to in the world of festivals, cabaret and performance art?
Yes, Archeos along with other early innovators of alternative circus such as La Fura Dels Baus to Canadian company 7 Fingers ( Le Sept Doigts), La Soiree, Punchdrunk. I look up to innovators, groundbreakers, risk-takers, mothers in the industry and all those who keep pushing. Performers - acrobats, singers, dancers - are the mouthpiece of society; we’re the clowns, the activists and the entertainers. Come for the best ride, from the sublime to the insane - in a world hurtling into AI alternative reality, this is how we stay human.
Absolutely! Cabaret isn’t just a night of amazing acrobatics, brilliant burlesque, delightful drag performers and so on - it carries a message, teasing us about our obsessions. What took you down this path - and what point are you trying to get across to the audience?
I delight in provoking just a little, touching on and teasing the audience towards discussion of topics that may be somewhat sensitive. I do this in both subtle and literal ways, but always tongue-in-cheek as well as poignant at moments. Cabaret in this format is after all about fun and entertainment, which is the baseline. Inspired by the absolutely fabulous outfits in Met Gala’s 2018 theme - Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & the Catholic Imagination (Heavenly Bodies was also the name of my 2021 cabaret for Auckland Arts Festival) - which reignited my love for, and cynicism about, the opulence of Catholic churches, the sheer outrageousness that marries the holy trinity of fashion, religion and money.
So when the audience leave after seeing Absolutely! Cabaret, how do you want them to feel?
Hopefully when they leave, it’s like after seeing an epic movie - you have absorbed the spirit of it, and you carry some its essence with you back out into the world. Maybe they feel empowered by Miss Hellblazer, will dream of acrobats in shopping trolleys, are fresh fans of Tom Sainsbury and his dubious Ab!-Cab fashion choices, or get slightly hot at the recall of MC Lizzie Tollemache upside down, strapped in a corset and straitjacket. I’d be happy if they felt exhilarated, slightly challenged and possibly unable to sleep.
The details:
What: Absolutely! Cabaret part of the Right Royal Cabaret Festival
When: Thursday, June 22, 8.30pm
Where: Theatre Royal, TSB Showplace, New Plymouth
Details: Tickets via Ticketek or www.rightroyal.co.nz
