Page 30 - The Outdoor Showman OCT-DEC 2019

CIRCUS NEWS
Creative circus productions
The flow towards special-appeal Theme Circuses became a gusher this year -
in the middle of the worst drought in recorded history.
It started with ‘Santa’s Magical Kingdom’, with Silver’s Grand Magic Circus, then
in its fifth year, in December, 2018,
at Melbourne’s Caulfield Racecourse
in conjunction with Keith Brown’s production company.
Hudson’s Circus did a superbly-produced Christmas Circus’, with 21 dancers in one number and a range of circus acts, at Springfield, near Ipswich, Queensland.
January saw circus Royale’s Damien Syred at Warrnambool, Victoria,
and Silvers on the Mornington Peninsula, both with dynasaur-themed productions.
Circus Royale went back on the road in Victoria mid-year, and Damien launched his second Unit, Chinese themed, also in Victoria, to good results.
In March, Burton’s Circus used a three- tent set-up at Springfield, loaded with dynasaurs and a big carnival.
‘Infamous’, the adult-cabaret Circus (under-18s not admitted), the Circus Joseph Ashton production from Perth, continued its run around Wollongong NSW and the ACT, before a big-mileage run north to Cairns, often to sold-out houses.
The Great Moscow Circus showed Perth and major country Western Australia, before going North over the Top to Darwin, to Mt Isa and North Queensland, coming down the Coast towards the end of the year.
Dynasaurs reared their beaks, wagged their tails and roared at Stardust Circus at Miranda, Sydney, for the September- October school holidays, and later at Warrawong, Wollongong.
Two traditional circuses kept their Western themes throughout the year:
Weber’s Circus, mostly in country
NSW, some Sydney sites and the ACT, and Tony and Cathy Maynard’s Eroni’s Circus, mostly in Melbourne and country Victoria. Both did good business.
Mid-year, Circus Oz launched a new production in Melbourne, mainly to take overseas.
By October, Burton’s brought back dynasaurs - and then changed the whole production to ‘Halloween Circus’, for three weeks in Toowoomba, Queensland. It featured a four-girl Dancing Skeletons chorus, and every
act ghoul-themed, with choreography by Danielle Lennon, Warren’s wife, who runs the largest dance-school on the South side of Brisbane. So different, and audiences loved it.
In October, the restless Silvers-Brown combination launched a major costume character ‘Sesame Street’ Circus production at Melbourne’s Burnley Oval. It’s now booked for Tasmania in January.
Circus Rio continued its South American theme through South Australia and Western NSW, before doing a combined carnival-and-Circus with Gary O’Neil’s Carnival in Liverpool, Sydney, in November.
And ever the innovators, Silvers produced their sixth ‘Santa’s Magical Kingdom’ at Caulfield, Friday 22nd November to Sunday 29th December.
A year of great creativity in Circus. Economic conditions were anything but good; a NSW State Election, then a Federal Election in May, the fourth year of the worst NSW-Queensland- Victoria-South Australia drought in history, housing and building slump, wage restraint and a retail sales slump - and yet, ‘The Show Must Go On’.
And it did!
Better than ever!
All the costumes characters you’d expect at a Sesame Street presentation.
28 THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN
Chantel & Jefferson