Balancing a ‘perverse optimism’
While the pandemic has been a challenging and difficult time, the situation has also filled Circa’s artistic director Yaron Lifschitz with a ‘somewhat perverse’ optimism.
While the pandemic has been a challenging and difficult time, the situation has also filled Circa’s artistic director Yaron Lifschitz with a “somewhat perverse” optimism.
“It has changed my art,” he said.
“A lot of my work previously had been quite post-apocalyptic and grim about things, but somehow — and perhaps perversely — COVID has filled me with a kind of optimism. As humans, we are adaptable and resilient and I’ve witnessed a lot of that. People figuring how to get on with their lives has been really inspiring.”
It’s this optimism that has inspired Circa’s latest project, Humans 2.0, which will be premiering at the Sydney Festival in January following the major success of the original Humans production in 2017.
The new show is advertised as a “love letter to humanity”, which Lifschitz believes will send a message of hope as the world reels from pandemic fallout. “I wanted to expand on the exploration of humanity from the first project, to find out how we could make acrobatics match the human form — keep it full of blood and pulse and energy rather than a robotic lifelessness,” he said.
“This show is full of what makes us human – connectivity, awkwardness, passion.”
The 10 performers in Humans 2.0 will dance and perform acrobatic feats on the Carriageworks stage, under lighting designed by Paul Jackson and to music by composer Ori Lichtik.
Circa was able to retain its entire ensemble during the pandemic and is the first arts company to have full physical touch allowed in the rehearsal room.
Lifschitz said the pandemic had made him realise that a lot of theatre in Australia is like a Zoom call, with people talking passively at the audience, but Circa seeks to offer an active alternative. “I want to see work that warms, thrills and inspires,” he said.
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