Roll up, roll up, the cirque-us is coming to town.
After a Covid-enforced four-year hiatus, Queenstown’s Whirlwind Productions is putting on a fresh incarnation of ‘La Nuit d’Extraordinaire! — A Very Celestial Night’, and it promises to be a star-studded affair.
Basin-based performance luminaries Charlotte Graf and Margaret O’Hanlon are co-producing the show that professes to be a combination of concert, theatre, circus, comedy, skill and visual splendour.
‘‘Crazy cirque, chaotic, very much balanced with amazing skill acts that will take the crowd’s breath away,” Graf says of the show that will hit Arrowtown’s Athenaeum Hall over three night this month.
In keeping with its French cabaret, vaudeville style, the audience will be seated around tables where they can ‘‘eat, drink and be merry’’ while taking in all the action.
‘‘It’s very interactive, we bring audience members up, we have acts going into the audience,’’ Graf says.
For 45 minutes before the show begins, performers — including stilt walkers and fire dancers, courtesy of Flame Entertainment — will ‘roam’ around the tables, while there’ll be performers in the lobby as the audience arrives, some of whom ‘‘might creep people out’’.
As per the show’s catch-cry, people need to ‘expect the unexpected’, she says.
‘‘The flavour of ‘La Nuit’ is the travelling circus … [it’s] full of surprises.
‘‘It’s an extremely funny comedy show based on slapstick, with comedians and illusionists and also a highly-skilled show of aerialists, magicians, tumblers, jugglers — proper cirque, if you will — and it’s also visual, like wearable arts.’’
The celestial theme, that threads through each character and performance, grew out of the ‘‘aurora chasing which has swept our district of late and our sudden pre-occupation with the sky’’, O’Hanlon says, with characters based on space phenomena and planets.
‘‘One is the black hole — she’s very unpleasant.
‘‘One is quite naughty — Clitoris from the planet Labia.’’
O’Hanlon says it’s great and a ‘‘bit scary and a little overwhelming’’ to be back in business putting together such an intricate show after Covid shutdowns.
‘‘All the people that manage events that come to town, they all lost their work along with us.
‘‘It’s really nice we’ve got the green light.’’
All 15-strong cast plus crew are district locals and O’Hanlon says that’s testament to the array of high-quality artists and technicians that dwell in the Basin.
‘‘We really love [shows like La Nuit] because it’s a creative outlet and they love it … they can invent something that’s theirs.”
The producers say the show is a true collaboration — for example, costuming’s by Queenstown designer and jeweller Kay Turner, while The Paint People are taking care of body painting, and Creative Queenstown’s handling hospitality, with proceeds going back into the community’s creative kitty.
‘‘The show has been built off 1000 coffees … discussing with people what they want to do, how can they do it, how are we going to make it work … all those sorts of things and working out how it fits with the overall theme,’’ O’Hanlon says.
They’re particularly grateful to tree rigger David ‘Spoon’ Macleod, who’d helping with rigging infrastructure for the arealist and pole dancer — ‘‘without Dave, we’re nothing’’, O’Hanlon says.
‘‘We hope to get a good turnout and people are excited about it and go away with a big fat smile on their faces.’’
La Nuit d’Extraordinaire! — A Very Celestial Night, Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall, Friday, July 21 and Saturday, July 22, 7pm, Sunday July 23 5pm. Tickets via whirlwindnz.com
