One of our leading acrobatic performance companies, home-grown Brisbane-based Circa Contemporary Circus, joined forces with the world-renowned UK animation studio Aardman (Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep) to create a circus/physical theatre production, entitled Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show. This production takes a different approach to the well-loved TV series about a naughty sheep and his adventures. Rather than recreate a ‘suits’ show, where actors dress up as the characters and re-enact television episodes on stage, Circa has taken an imaginative journey that meshes specific elements of the well-loved shows with the physical theatre and acrobatic skills of their artform, to embellish and deliver the stories in a refreshing new way.  While the idea of taking a leap from plasticine model figures animated for television to creating a story based on physicality may appear daunting, the lack of non-verbal communication already present in the series combined with its quirky humour offers rich opportunities for circus performers.

Photograph © Prudence Upton

The intertwined story of the Farmer and his tangles with technology, omnipresent in the series, is cleverly represented and utilised in this stage show. Cast as a non-acrobatic actor, the Farmer’s...