2006

2006 was the fifteenth anniversary of the Women’s Circus, and we looked back to our roots as inspiration for our artistic program…

THRILL! as women dare to celebrate the women who pioneered new circus!

GASP! as past issues rear their ugly heads!

> Gallery of photos
> List of cast and crew
> Background to the show

Director Anni Davey, celebrated Circus Oz performer, put circus back into Women’s Circus with their 15th annual show, with Musical Direction by Sista She; radical, hip hop, feminist sisters claiming contemporary music as a weapon in the fight against female oppression.

It was 1979 in Melbourne…

A new voice in Australian performance was emerging from an old pram factory in Carlton: students and radicals, anarchists and Trotskyists, bohemians and hippies, draft dodgers and circus performers.

The Real Mighty Bonza Whacko Wimmin’s Circus was born.

“It’s not real circus! REAL circus has animals! A circus without animals is like a plane without wings!” the traditionalists cried.

“A plane without wings is a rocket!” the women replied.

Director Anni Davey asks, “It’s now 2006 and what really has changed? Do women really have it any better than they did 30 years ago? Our right to choose safe and legal abortion is being threatened again. After our mothers’ mighty protest outside the gates of Pine Gap, the Howard Government is opening up the mines again, inviting the world to Buy! Buy! Buy!”

A PLANE WITHOUT WINGS IS A ROCKET! brought 60 Women’s Circus members onto the stage in a radical circus spectacle that reminds people that women can do anything, apathy is not an option, and we can change the world!

Background

For the first half of 2006, Artistic Director Donna Jackson led a research and creative process that documented radical women of ‘new circus’ in Australia in the late 1970s. This began with a forum and panel discussion in June with seven women that played a key role in the growth of ‘new circus’ – Ponch Hawkes, Robin Laurie, Ollie Black, Sue Broadway, Laurel Franks, Ursula Harrison and Jane Mullet.

The oral histories that emerged – stories of the 1970s women’s movement that grew into radical, political, women’s theatre and circus – inspired the Women’s Circus show A Plane Without Wings is a Rocket. In September 2006, Circus Oz performer and director Anni Davey took over the artistic process as Show Director.

Gallery