The new circus show from The Dust Palace isn’t just a fun night out, it’s an introduction to an exciting new space in Tāmaki Makaurau, writes Sam Brooks.
As a resident of the very centre of Auckland’s central business district, I often forget that there are spaces beyond the view of the Sky Tower where exciting and new art is being performed. “1010” is just a postcode, not a designation of where all the cool stuff is happening. Last week’s preview night of circus show Haus of Yolo, in a revamped suburban Ellerslie arts space, is a reminder of that.
The concept of Haus of Yolo (stylised in all caps) is a fun one. A sparkly green jacket is passed around the cast – Eve Gordon, Lizzie Tollemache, Luis Meireilles and Jaine Mieka – possessing each in turn with a megalomaniacal fashion designer persona. Think Jim Carrey’s The Mask. This jacket is intent on making a new fashion line to be featured in Vogue, and no innuendo or pantomimery will get in its way.
While the concept is fun, the audience is really here for the circus. The Dust Palace has been Tāmaki Makarau’s leading circus company for over a decade now, with as many shows to their name as they have years under their belt. Their brand – high-level circus framed by narrative – is a strong one, and they continue in that vein here. The narrative is a nice-to-have, the circus is the essential excellence here.
The circus delivers. The company’s director Eve Gordon is, as ever, spectacular. Even though I’ve seen them onstage many times, it’s still a thrill to see them be seemingly effortlessly lifted into mid-air and spin, swish, and contort into shapes that fly in the face of what the human body should be capable of. Meireilles and Mieka were new to me, however, and Mieka’s acts on the silks and with the hoops were particularly impressive, blending pure athleticism with remarkable grace and beauty. Tollemache provides the magic (and I mean that literally) of the show, with segments that punctuate the audience’s questions of “How are they doing that?” with, “No, but seriously, how are they doing that?”
One of the highlights of the show is getting introduced to a new space, Ellerslie Arts, which The Dust Palace is now the resident company-slash-owner of. The space used to be the home of the Ellerslie Theatrical Society, which wrapped up its community activities in 2023, and it mixes the feel of a community hall with a professional space. It has that classic pros’ arch and a cute little bar window, but a lick of paint and professional rig elevate it.
Haus of Yolo seems designed to make the most of this space. It’s easily the most intimate space I’ve seen this kind of circus in. I’d estimate the venue seats just above a hundred people, with each of those hundred being mere metres from the performer, and the ensemble makes sure to use every inch of floor space, mingling among the audience seated underneath the proscenium arch and marching down to those seated in the proverbial (and probably literal) cheaper seats. Circus is an artform that we’re traditionally told soars in massive spaces, where thousands of people can feed in their energy to the performance of one person, doing physics-defying stunts and spectacle-driven acts for us. We see it in places like Spark Arena, Civic Theatre, or Q Theatre’s Rangatira space. For logistical reasons, places like Basement Theatre or BATs Theatre can’t really accommodate the form.
The intimacy of Ellerslie Arts highlights another part of circus, and frankly the main appeal of the artform for me, now. You can see the intense focus on each performer’s face as they perform, and you can feel the ensemble giving each other energy. When Tollemache sits at the lip of the stage, jacket donned, you really feel the focus that she’s giving to Gordon and Meireilles as they contort and intertwine in mid-air. Circus is high stakes enough as it is, with the performers risking injury in the same space as the audience, but being this close to the action gives it another level. The Dust Palace have cottoned on to a winner with its new space, and I’m frankly excited to see the potential of it.
There is, perhaps, one game too many for the audience to follow. One of the most impressive parts of the show – the fact that the cast is speed sewing the garments that they then have to wear onstage – often gets lost despite some helpful camerawork showcasing it. It’s the one downside to the intimacy of the space, that there’s sometimes too much show for the space to contain it.
On the whole, though, the preview night of Haus of Yolo showed me more of what the Tāmaki Makaurau performing arts needs most. As people are being priced out of the central suburbs, we need more spaces to host both them and the things they want to see. Put simply: Ellerslie Arts is one of those spaces, and Haus of Yolo is definitey one of those shows.
Haus of Yolo is performing Kerikeri and Hastings this May, before visiting Canada in June. You can find tickets here.
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