May 22, 2026 — 1:08pmCIRCUSKooza, Cirque du SoleilFlemington Racecourse, until July 19★★★★★Precarity is a fact of life in the performing arts, even for household names like Cirque du Soleil, and it’s great to see them in full flight again.The Canadian circus juggernaut took a hard landing in Melbourne in the pandemic years. Its spectacular Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities was shuttered by the first COVID lockdown, mere days into the season, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection not long afterward.Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza features jaw-dropping displays of acrobatic prowess.Matt Beard & Bernard LetendreInternational service has since resumed. New show Luzia toured Australia in 2024, yet of all the Cirque du Soleil I’ve attended over the years, Kooza remains my favourite and the one I’d take kids to see.It’s got all the qualities that you associate with Cirque du Soleil. Pageantry and costume. Eclectic world music. Sky-high production values. World-class acrobatics you won’t find anywhere else.Most Cirque du Soleil shows can tick those off a list. Here, they merge into a seamless, irresistibly charming fantasia, drawing on the archetypes of commedia dell’arte to deliver a clownish odyssey that resembles an illustrated children’s book come to life.Kooza resembles an illustrated children’s book come to life.Matt Beard & Bernard LetendreA mysterious package arrives as a Pierrot-figure (Alexander Yudintsev) – an innocent clown in cute nightwear – tries to fly a kite. Out springs a Harlequin-figure, a jack-in-the-box trickster (Kevin Beverley), who takes the innocent on a dream journey that vaults between gravity-defying feats and the lively antics of a clown kingdom ruled over by a clown king (Mark Gindick).(At one point, there’s a clown coup – with Australian actor Shane Jacobson picked out of the audience to seize the crown on opening night – though that’s the only major piece of audience participation in buffoonery that’s entertaining but also practical, buying time to set up new apparatus between jaw-dropping displays of acrobatic prowess.)The acrobats are astonishing. All circus speaks in the language of wonder, but it’s rare to encounter a wow-factor so consistently high that you’ve got to keep reminding yourself to close your mouth.Aerialists are well-represented: a dizzying aerial tissue routine (Mizuki Shinagawa), a teeterboard ensemble that features backflipping on stilts, an incredible highwire act in which riding a bicycle across a tightrope is just the beginning.And of course, the Wheel of Death. Even a massive jazz showstopper with skeleton showgirls (summoned by the innocent in a “sorcerer’s apprentice” moment) can’t compete with the thrill of watching acrobats scurry across a gigantic, gyrating hamster wheel for two.There are plenty of preternatural physical feats on the ground. You’ll never forget the exquisite flexibility and balance of the Mongolian contortionist trio (Sunderiya Jargalsaikhan, Ninjin Altankhuyag and Sender Enkhtur), or the Ukrainian unicycle duo Anastasiia Shkandybina and Dmytro Dudnyk, or the moment when the Pierrot-figure tries his hand at circus on the Cyr wheel.It’s magical circus apt to leave all but the most jaded eye sparkling with delight, and if you’ve never seen Cirque du Soleil, this is an ideal entree.Reviewed by Cameron WoodheadTHEATRERetrograde ★★★★Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio until June 27Titan of film Sidney Poitier is transposed to the stage in Ryan Calais Cameron’s three-hander play Retrograde, a claustrophobic confrontation of competing ideologies and values that unfolds in real time across 90 minutes.It’s 1957 and Bobby (Josh McConville), modelled after real-life screenwriter Robert Alan Aurthur, has cast his friend Poitier (Donné Ngabo) in his latest film. NBC lawyer Mr Parks (Alan Dale) invites Poitier to his office under the guise of finalising his contract. But what transpires is something far more sinister and tense, based on a real-life encounter Poitier had.Josh McConville, Donné Ngabo and Alan Dale in Retrograde.Sarah WalkerZoe Rouse’s set is contained to an ornate room that morphs into a distillation of broader concerns playing out in the larger world. Cameron’s play superbly materialises a time when McCarthyism was running rampant, personal spaces were being surveilled, overt displays of racism were commonplace, and Hollywood was employed as a site of covert propaganda.It’s a political climate that’s gallingly similar to today’s, in which anti-war and anti-genocide rhetoric is hailed as “radical” and people of conscience who refuse to adhere to “American values” are summarily punished.The play’s incessant push-and-pull between whether Poitier will succumb to what is asked of him or not lends the play its overarching structure. Tension is sustained throughout despite the repetitious framework.But what you mightn’t expect in a play so heavy is just how funny it is. Nearly every statement that unfurls from Mr Parks’ mouth is a witty aphorism or barbed insult that, while strongly grounded in its time, lends complexity to a frankly contemptible man.Far from a one-dimensional villain, Dale’s snivelling, menacing Mr Parks is a worthy adversary reflective of the unctuous nature of show business – as mesmerising in the way he weaponises language as he is caustic and manipulative. McConville’s multilayered Bobby is a slippery ally as he vacillates between demonstrations of solidarity and his outsized self-interest.Donné Ngabo doesn’t merely bear an uncanny resemblance to Poitier, but also masterfully replicates the actor’s signature voice.Sarah WalkerUnder Bert LaBonté‘s direction, Poitier’s theatricality comes to the fore in spotlit segments punctuated by a jazzy drum roll where Ngabo shakes off the strictures of his sublimation in Mr Parks’ office and narrativises his life. A flashing red “applause” sign summoning a television studio incorporates the audience into the unfolding action.Rouse leans completely into 1950s men’s fashion with sack-style suits, suspenders, two-tone wingtip brogues. Sidney and Bobby wear complementary shades of brown, yellow and burgundy, but Mr Parks is in dull grey, almost receding into the vista of skyscrapers that backdrop his office. Fittingly, he symbolises a relic of a bygone era that’s fighting tooth and nail to retain dominance in a world that’s shifting faster than his “lily-livered” brain can comprehend.Each actor is brilliant in their respective roles, but the emotional crux of the play hinges on Ngabo and he rises admirably to the challenge. From a tightly coiled bundle of barely suppressed nerves to a wellspring of energy and overflowing resentment at the injustice of it all, Ngabo doesn’t merely bear an uncanny resemblance to Poitier.From our partners