Last Orders

This exceptional show is nothing less than extraordinary. The performances are astonishing, thrilling and breathtaking; a stunning sequence of stylised gesture, movement and mime is craftily married with raw, physically demanding acrobatic feats. The showcase for the 2015 graduating class provides the opportunity to savour the impressive talent of these future stars. The experience is beautifully orchestrated from beginning to end, punctuated with cheeky humour which generates belly aching laughs. Each act exhibits daring, not just in its physicality, but also in its pace and rhythm. The performers show no fear as they virtually dance on thin air, and they are also daring in their willingness to stretch the boundaries of their art to give new and fresh interpretations.

Last Orders is presented as a cabaret venue whose waiting staff make flying leaps, somersault their way across the stage and dangle dangerously from the ceilings. The show opens and closes with group acts whose synchronised movements attest to the strength of their artistic unity. However, the individual performances provide the awe inspiring acrobatics. 

Corrie Hurry defies gravity performing handstands on a pillar of chairs. Alex Jean sweeps through the air on a multi chord making the audience gasp with his rhythmic mid-air balancing acts, and then he manages to simply vanish before your eyes. Erin Murphy makes a dramatic entrance and gives a very sleek and smooth performance on the Chinese pole. Maddie Robbins effortlessly chats to the audience while hula hooping and Callan Beacroft makes his aerial hoop both languid and energetic. 

Each act seems to want to outdo the previous one and everything from handstands to juggling and aerial hoops mesmerise the audience. Maggie Fayne and Marty Evans change the pace with their sensual duo act, Adagio. Their physical symbiosis results in a fluidity of movement that has delicacy and poise. The handstands performed by Mark Graham and Steph Mouat create dynamic interactions between movement and music and Adam O’Conner-McMahon’s juggling is unexpectedly hypnotic. Jillibalu Riley incorporates indigenous dance and music in his beautifully evocative aerial strap performance.

One of the highlights of the show is, undoubtedly, the comic genius of Simone Sallé. Her clowning is radical in its imagination and continually injects the show with well measured doses of humour. The waiters - some sultry, some contemptuous - usher in tightrope walkers (Keely Tyler-Dowd), trapeze artists (Elke Uhd) and aerial hoop performers (Miriam Cawley, Steven Finnegan). The finale is simply rollicking good fun and the audience cannot resist being delightfully swept away. The use of music and lighting always ensures the attention is sharply focused on the performers and all the dramatic nuances of their movement. No detail is overlooked in the design of this production. Last Orders is a thoroughly enjoyable show that is a privilege to witness.

Patricia Di Risio

Images: Aaron Walker Photography.