Some of Australia’s favourite comedians, an adult circus cabaret and a renowned Queen of the Cross make it to Wollongong this April and May for the third Spiegeltent season.
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The antique mirrored venue will setup in the Arts Precinct near the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre for a month of cabaret, circus, comedy and kid-friendly entertainment.
It’s part of Merrigong theatre company’s program for 2019, which aims to offer a wider selection of entertainment and entice more people to the theatre.
“In the first year 38 per cent [of ticket-buyers] were not on our database, which meant they’d never bought a ticket at IPAC before,” Merrigong artistic director Simon Hinton said.
Mr Hinton said they had “tweaked” a few things small for the Spiegeltent season, such as more popular shows running a bit longer – like Lano and Woodley's FLY. There will also be more local artists performing for free in the Arts Precinct before and during shows.
The program is also comedy heavy with favourites like Dave Hughes, Judith Lucy, Tom Gleeson, Paul Foot, Tommy Little and Joel Creasey returning.
The season will also include stories from writer, filmmaker and author John Safran; plus cabaret from Queen of the Cross, Carlotta. For ANZAC day, audiences will be treated to the sounds of one of Australia’s living musical legends: Archie Roach.
The big ticket item that will run daily during the season is Deluxe Deluxe by Strut & Fret (the minds behind last year’s burlesque circus Limbo and Madonna’s recent Rebel Heart tour).
The “glitterati of international circus and cabaret talent” will be hosted by comedian, juggler and contortionist Scot Nerry (a pancake juggler who’s performed globally on stage and screen).
Younger audiences won’t miss out either with Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus. It blends circus thrills with musical mayhem to tell the story of classical music’s favourite child prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Merrigong committed to a minimum of three years to host the travelling venue and will reassess later in 2019 whether the venture is still viable in the future.
“It depends a little bit on funding and audiences and those sorts of things,” Mr Hinton said.
“I believe we have DA approval to keep doing it but we have to see how it grows and look at our priorities.
“At the moment I imagine we would keep doing but we’ll have to assess after this year.”
Spiegeltent Wollongong, Arts Precinct, Thursday April 11 to Sunday May 5. www.spiegeltentwollongong.com
Tickets go on sale 10am Tuesday, February 5.
