Circa brought Wolf home to Brisbane for its Australian premiere — a contemporary circus work inspired by pack power and featuring Circa’s trademark style, formidable physical skill, and awe-inspiring execution.

Created by Circa Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz with the Circa Ensemble, Wolf opened in Berlin last year and travelled through Europe, the UK and Canada before returning to the company’s home base in Brisbane for a brief season at QPAC. The work was commissioned by La Comète and co-produced with Chamäleon Berlin, where the show made its world premiere in August 2024.

Circa’s Wolf. Photo © Andy Phillipson

Directed by Lifschitz, who also designed the staging, Wolf was performed by an ensemble of 10 Circa acrobats in two acts. Thematically, it explores ideas of the inner animal and the untameable self, as well as the construction and destruction that are possible when individuals become a collective.

The work digs deeper into themes that Lifschitz and long-time collaborator Ori Lichtik explored in Humans 2.0 earlier in the year. Sound design by Lichtik blends discordant, off-kilter classical elements with a thumping backbeat that ebbs and flows.

Lighting designed by Alex Berlage shifts colour against the blank canvas of the single white wall that frames the stage. It also highlights the acrobats’ silhouettes against this backdrop, their shadows shuddering behind them.

The curves and contours of the bodysuit costuming, designed by Libby McDonnell, evoke ideas of camouflage – the different patterns on each acrobat blending and blurring into one another as they run and roll.

Wolf follows Circa’s winning, well-tested formula, combining short bursts of solos, duets and trios with synchronised group choreography and frenetic movement. The acrobats leap, lift, tumble and balance with seemingly superhuman strength, dexterity, flexibility and stamina.

In keeping with the work’s title, the movement style on the ground suggests wolves and wild animals: sniffing, skittish, stalking, with even a couple of bites. Although the work has no narrative arc, it includes several moments of humour and physical comedy.

Circa’s Wolf. Photo © Andy Phillipson

After the interval, the ensemble returns for a second half with more focus on the power of the pack, featuring coordinated movement and loud exhalations. Growling bass under the music lends further primality as the acrobats move more synchronously.

Solo aerial acts on straps and trapeze are woven through the floor-based performance, though the sharp, contorting aerial movements feel more insectoid than canine. The acrobats handle the apparatus smoothly as it flies in and out, and a line of performers belaying the trapeze artist at varying heights adds an interesting element and brings the process into audience view.

The acrobats create incredible shapes and throw their bodies to the sky, the ground and each other with well-rehearsed abandon and absolute trust. Wolf runs for 80 minutes, and the ensemble performs with unflagging energy and intense focus. Their feats draw cheers, gasps and applause from the audience throughout, as they seem to slow mid-air – whether leaping or falling – launching upwards with explosive energy and balancing with grounded, steady strength.

Along with the heart-racing pace and frenzied movement style, many components of Wolf are recognisable from other Circa works. Building repeatedly from the same strong foundation, the company continues to experiment and expand its repertoire: Wolf includes acrobatic acts that are extraordinary even by the sky-high standards Circa has set for contemporary circus performance.

Wolf played at the Playhouse Theatre, QPAC, from 12–15 November 2025