A blend of the gritty, dystopian aesthetic and high-energy circus performance, Barbaroi is coming to the Potato Shed.
The award-winning show, which kicks off at 8pm on Saturday, October 1, brings a strong element of storytelling to the performance medium of circus, something that co-creator of the show, After Dark Theatre’s Frank Minniti, believes sets Barbaroi apart from many other shows of its kind.
“The show is based on a character who has just stumbled into this dystopian world, the lair of a gang, and it’s her initiation into becoming one of the toughest people in the district,” Minniti said.
“It’s basically a dystopian-circus-cyberpunk showdown of who’s got the best skills, who can be the alpha dog.
“It’s different from your traditional circus show, we tend to really push as much narrative as we can. And that was a nice and interesting challenge to do that with circus.”
Developed with fellow producer and performer Stan Ricketson and director Avan Whaite, Barbaroi fuses edgy lighting, music and costume design to evoke the cyberpunk aesthetic so reminiscent of the 80s and 90s, which draws on elements of the industrial, the corporate and the futuristic.
“We really wanted to create this kind of cool streetwear mixed with cyberpunk,” Minniti said.
“When the game Cyberpunk came out, everyone was really into this neo-Tokyo culture, so we really pushed that as hard as we could.”
“It’s high action, lots of fun. It’s a family-accessible show, but it’s one that adults can really enjoy. I think everybody loves that theme, that kind of fantasy in a cyberpunk world.”
A co-founder of After Dark Theatre since 2008, Minniti said his acting background made a focus on narrative a natural creative choice for him.
“After Dark started off as a black light circus show, I’ve always loved to mix lighting and world-building with circus,” he said.
“Coming from acting and teaming up with a bunch of circus people, I brought the narrative side of my craft into their world, and we started making these hybrid, narrative circus shows.
“Since then, we’ve gone from a bunch of street performers and graduates fresh out of acting and circus schools to using fully comprehensive, intelligent moving light rigs and working with artists from all across Australia, Europe, North America.
“Doing these thematic, story-driven shows, with a lot of tech behind it, it’s really cool. It’s developed significantly from where we started.”
