Reviews

Honour was first performed at the CUB Malthouse in 1995, yet the events Joanna Murray-Smith depicts with such insight could just as well have happened last week.  Perhaps a wife with a successful career of her own would not so willingly give it up to nurture and support her now famous husband’s – but psychologically the truth of that persists.  Whose career takes precedence even today?

What is truth, and what is reality? Created by Australian company Gravity & Other Myths, The Mirror is circus acrobatics with guts, an exciting 70 minutes of songs, audio-visuals, and talented athletes, all throwing bodies in the air with no safety nets.

Before the show properly starts, storyteller and songsmith Phil Grainger is handing out post-it notes, asking the audience sitting in the round to come up with the names of things you’d pack in your car to go on holiday. Suggestions of sunscreen and snacks are noted, a bucket and spade for the beach – and Grainger introduces us to some other important items. The story is set in the 1990s, so it’s an old Walkman with orange foam headphones and a VHS video tape that contains our entertainment once we get to the holiday house.

There are few Fringe venues that inspire before the act commences: the world-famous Spiegeltent is one of them: a magnificent wooden skeleton bound with canvas and filled with stained glass and mirrors (its name means ‘mirror tent’ in Dutch). They were originally built in the late 19th and early 20th century, and this installation, the Victoria from Belgium, is filled with an anticipating crowd, seated around the small circular stage (La Ronde = the round), struggling to talk over the loud, thumping music.