Monsteria, weird and wonderful, highly visual and exhilarating, thought provoking and empowering. This is performance of striking physicality

Monsteria is a highly visual, sculptural and exhilarating performance that reflects on our experiences as women and fiercely and fearlessly champions women speaking out about intrusions on our lives and bodies echoing the urgency of the “me too” movement.

Blending superb circus skills with theatrical exploration, it meddles with extremes of femininity - distorting stereotypes, revealing assumptions and fighting off expectations.

The three performers, identities concealed, are blindly born into this world filled with constraints. They journey through highly physical and metaphoric challenges, sometimes ridiculous, playful or confounding, until they find each other as allies. Together they embrace their monstrosity. Peeling away the layers until they are completely vulnerable, they find their power.

This performance is thought provoking, and empowering, resonating long after the show finishes. Everything the performers touch is brought to life in a surreal exploration of female form and experience. The circus is unique, visceral and punchy. This is a slow burn of beautiful images that builds to a powerful and unexpected climax.

“Monsteria pushes boundaries where few have dared to explore…” All Over Adelaide “...brimming with wonder…imbued with meaning, heart and precision in every moment.” Merlynn Tong, Playwright/Actor “...moments of extreme beauty and clarity…” Broadway Baby

Venue Format
Theatre, Black Box Venue
Technical Rating
B, C
Touring Party
5
Considerations

Performance contains unremarkable nudity in very low light Performance needs 2 x aerial rigging points, 2 x diversion points and 2 x ground anchors all for live loads

GUSH is a physical theatre and circus ensemble made up of 4 highly experienced, culturally and generationally diverse women. GUSH uses the repertoire of circus and the theatricality of contemporary performance to explore the way the performing feminine body is read and misread. The circus is unconventional and the performance is beautifully grotesque, and disquietingly moving. Monsteria, GUSH’s premiere work, has been presented at Wonderland Festival Brisbane, 2017, and Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Monsteria is winner of Adelaide Fringe Festival Weekly Best Circus and Physical Theatre Award 2018, and Matilda Theatre Award Best Costume Design 2017 and nominated for Matilda Award Best Circus and Physical Theatre.

Ensemble members are Anna Yen is a highly respected, multi-award winning performer, theatre maker, director, writer and teacher; Bianca Mackail is an acrobat, aerialist and performer who combines passion, agility and a powerful physicality; Mayu Muto is an internationally trained dancer and performing as a circus artist specialising in unconventional aerial apparatus; Celia White, has a long history of using circus, movement and physical imagery to explore femininity and gender identities.

GUSH has been artist-in-residence at Vulcana Women’s Circus and all have experience of national and international touring of performance work.

Company Website
facebook.com/GUSHcircus

Unique Selling Point

This work is unusual. It is circus with a bite that is contemporary and conceptual. It combines the spectacle of circus - with dynamic action that is thrilling, with content to make audiences feel. The ensemble consists of women only, who are culturally diverse, and with a wide range of ages unusual for this form.

Marketing Materials

Monsteria has marketing copy, videos that are documentary or promotional, high quality promotional images and images from live performance. Monsteria has examples of print material that can act as templates for future posters and fliers.

Community Engagement

The ensemble are all highly experienced performance/ circus teachers and can deliver workshops to community groups and school students. They are all arts workers experienced in community engagement through their work with Vulcana Women’s Circus and other community arts organisations, in rural, remote and urban contexts. They can deliver workshop experiences to women’s groups that include basic and empowering circus and performance skills. For students, community groups and women's groups the workshops in physical theatre provide an exploration of trust and connection that circus and physical languages can engender within the workshop group. We can offer artist talks prior to performances, for those who are interested in the theatrical form, the ideas, the creative process or the pathways for working in the arts. We can offer workshops in devising, ensemble making and creating new work in movement, physical and visual based theatre. In particular the GUSH ensemble can deliver a tailored experience for women in the communities they visit, that will allow them to use their bodies in a way that proves their strength to themselves and will enrich their engagement with the work, Monsteria.