one4review | On 09, Aug 2022

Strength, balance, timing, perfection. These are the words I kept thinking as I watched this breath-taking production. We are greeted by the concierge of the Hotel Paradiso who is delivering a rather melancholy story and giving us all the exposition, we need to know that the hotel is in a dire financial situation and it’s time to sell up, to the misery of the staff who are keen to do anything they can to keep the hotel open for business and out of the hands of the dastardly would-be new owners.

Once you understand the premise you may expect us to move through some set circus pieces that loosely tie into the story, however, this is not the case at all, everything is layered, the concierge feels he needs to hold the hotel up and his mind is spinning as he works with a Cyr wheel, the cleaner will climb any heights to make the hotel shine again as she delivers stunning aerial work with a duster in hand, the bellboy is juggling as much as he can to keep everything together and in as difficult situation as you will ever see anyone juggle! Our new want-to-be owners are tough and mean, but also have a clear distaste for one another as they hurl each other around the stage, outlining a clear broken relationship, I could go on but I will just end mentioning probably my favourite piece which came in the form of hula-hoops on the current owner who turns to the bottle to make everything better, but as she does more and more weight (hoops) are added to make life that much harder, I couldn’t think of a better way to visually depict depression and alcoholism through hula-hoops. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but I loved every minute of it.

The finale is amazing and blood, sweat, and tears have clearly gone into making this a stand-out, thought-provoking production and I encourage everyone to make this a part of their fringe plan!

*****

Reviewed by Matthew

Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows – The Beauty

15.20 (1hr)

Until Aug 27th (not 15th or 22nd)