Strut & Fret have christened their new permanent entertainment venue, The West End Electric theatre, with Limbo – The Return as part of Brisbane Festival. A new iteration of their award-winning variety show, it’s full of feathers, fire, and feats, with live music and cheeky circus and cabaret performances.
Located on Boundary Street, there is a hint of the Moulin Rouge in The West End Electric’s red-and-white colour palette, Ferris wheel of warm fairy lights, and velvet furnishings, with venue design by James Browne. The theatre space has a round thrust stage, with seating radiating out on the floor and along a raised section in front of the theatre bar. The balcony of the mezzanine bar also overlooks the stage from on high.
Strut & Fret have produced a long list of shows (including the acclaimed Blanc de Blanc) since the company was founded in Brisbane in 1997, and the opening of The West End Electric follows the successful launch of a similar venue, The Grand Electric, in Sydney’s Surry Hills earlier this year.
Limbo was first performed more than a decade ago, and Limbo – The Return is billed as a reimagining of the original show, with some favourites alongside new acts. There is no overarching storyline, but it is a series of cabaret and circus acts that transition smoothly from one to the other. There are plenty of feathers, flashing lights, and the performance takes place overhead as well as on the stage.
The talented cast featured three musicians and five performers, and the cast managed the various circus apparatuses with the stage crew. The whole show ran like a well-oiled machine. The music of Limbo – The Return was performed live by a three-piece band led by the composer, Sxip Shirey. Colourful, exciting lighting designed by Philip Gladwell added significantly to the atmosphere and impact of the performance, and it was also integral to one act that used a mirror to bounce light all around the room in sync with the artists’ beatboxing.
Each of the cast members had a distinctive aesthetic and specialisation. Bulgarian aerialist Maria Moncheva performed on aerial chains and sway pole, as well as ballroom dancing; Spanish acrobat David Marco stepped out over the heads of the audience on a slack rope, performing incredible feats of balance and concentration that included a folding chair, as well as devil sticks that were on fire; Hilton Denis was a charismatic presence, with his suave and speedy tap-dancing; Ben Loader also performed an aerial routine on a velvet rope; and burlesque performer Clara Fable sang and performed a series of acts where she ate and breathed fire. Fable was joined by Loader, who performed a fire whip-cracking routine and later set Fabel alight. Even the musicians were involved in the flaming action, with the top of the sousaphone ablaze at one point.
Limbo – The Return finished in a hurricane of feathers that I am still discovering across my house weeks later, swirling around an aerial act that saw three performers swooping overhead on sway poles, connecting in the centre of the stage and almost touching the audience as they swayed backwards.
Full of flames, feathers, and feats of impressive skill, Limbo – The Return was a spectacle of circus and cabaret in a slick new venue for Brisbane’s West End.
Limbo – The Return will be performed at The West End Electric, West End, from 29 August – 3 November 2024
For further information, visit the Brisbane Festival website
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