Strange Chaos – quick links
Strange Chaos – performed in Northcote, Melbourne, as part of this year’s Melbourne Fringe – is a gritty spectacle. In its previous run at Adelaide Fringe this year, it won Best Weekly Circus and was named Pick of the Fringe by ABC Radio National. The show beats to its own drum, constantly giving us a motif and then masterfully exploding it in each act.
Presented by Mitch Jones’ company, Oozing Future, it combines surreal clowning from Russian pedagogy (Slava’s Snowshow), Spartan pelvic muscles, Homer Simpson-calibre burps, and vignettes of vulnerability.
Strange Chaos has a delightfully crafted order. It starts as conceptual busking and transforms into an exemplary alt-circus, giving circus an orientation away from the formulaic variety night.
Strange Chaos: Northcote Plaza
The show begins not in a theatre, but at the infamous Northcote Plaza, a suburban time capsule known for its vacant shops and two Coles supermarkets. The audience is greeted with bubbles, and Jones eggs us on for high fives, joining him in giving rock-on-hand signals.
From there, the audience is led on a scenic route through laneways to a hidden venue resembling a utility garage. Led by Jones and fellow circus artist Chloe Fazikas – a masked ghostly companion – the audience is in on the joke, drawn into a world built on the improvisational rule of ‘yes, and’. It is immersive, but never intrusive.
As the audience walks to the venue, Jones reels us in with exaggerated body language, responding like a mime to every gesture the audience gives. An improvisational highlight was his attempt to camouflage with vines on a building, clad only in a leather harness, boots, and a razor-thin pleated mini skirt.
This punk clown is comically delusional, and through this choreographed failure, he becomes relatable to us, setting the tone for a soft, opaque fourth wall.
Strange Chaos: soft participation
At its core, Strange Chaos embodies ‘soft participation’ – a form of performance that gently invites the audience to play along. The soft fourth wall creates a sense of agency and shared ownership over the unfolding chaos.
Jones and Fazikas create multiple call-and-response exchanges rather than demanding our attention. They conduct us like a symphony, throw projectiles at us from beach balls and more, but always hint at the audience before it happens.
This results in special moments where fellow audience members negotiate in real time and, in turn, laugh together at the absurdity and satirical confusion.
The DIY production beautifully highlights the tenderness of these characters. Vibrant scenes of sideshow acts are beautifully enhanced by their shadows dancing on the red curtain. Strange Chaos uses just two theatre lights and headlights from a car to create an enchanting flipbook of striking images.
This alternative circus show captures the spirit of clowning, playfully amplifying vulnerability with carefully crafted moments of repetition. There is a charming rhythm, so when you settle into a scene, see something twice, expect it thrice, but get a surreal surprise instead.
Strange Chaos: disorder as a form of order
The stagecraft and precise comedic timing make you wonder if disorder is a form of order. When one section is focused on character and style, the following section features a fantastical physical feat. Every time I craved a change of mood or skill, the following number satisfied that craving.
The unmasking of Fazikas just before the nostalgic audience participation finale exemplifies this. Her hula hoops and hand-balancing sequences are technically flawless. She showcases her dexterity and catches you as dramatically as the hula hoop whirling around her foot in the air while in a standing split.
What makes Strange Chaos memorable is its balance of chaos and clarity, participation and pause. In the headlights’ glow, amid haze and sunset, Jones, the punk clown and Fazikas, the masked sidekick, invite us into a world where disorder has its own rhythm and the audience gets into the groove.
Chaos turns into tight choreography, creating a poetic dialogue between discipline and delirium, making the audience even waltz in celebration.
Strange Chaos continues daily from 15–19 October at 7.30pm in Northcote, Melbourne, as part of Melbourne Fringe.
Dr. Jonathan ‘Jonni’ Homsey is a philosopher and artist based in Melbourne. Homsey recently completed a Doctorate of Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology, where he defined Soft Participation in the performing arts.