THEATRE PREVIEW

OCTOBER 2025 | Volume 256

 

I could easily reduce this review to two words: HOLY SHIT!

Wolf is a remarkable 90 minutes of astonishing, choreographed, non-stop wordless acrobatics. The ten performersof Australia’s Circa company, six men and four women, charge at, climb on, flip over, embrace, attack, lift, throw, roll over, and snarl at each other to a pounding electronic score.

Imagine two 45 minute, highly choreographed, high-speed dance numbers in which, if a single performer lost his or her place, forgot a move, or stumbled, the thing would fall apart and someone would likely get seriously hurt. I thought of calling this a poor man’s Cirque du Soleil but Cirque is more accurately a rich man’s Circa. Because these performers, and this performance, is as good as any acrobatic act I’ve ever seen.

The title of the show, Wolf, and the costumes, black and brown leotards and tight shorts, conjure a wolf pack. At times they seem like wolf cubs playing, practicing the violence they’ll need as adults. At other times, especially when only two or three performers are onstage, we seem to be watching predators and prey. Although which one is the predator, which one the prey?

There are a few excellent semi-solo routines with silks or a rope. But for the most part all the performers are in motion all the time, and that’s when the stage is most fascinating, the choreography most impressive. Their flexibility, their fitness, their strength and coherence as an ensemble—as a pack—are astounding. The women are at least as strong as the men, lifting two, three, four people in the most incredible configurations at the most impossible angles.

I’m basically a word guy. I love digging into text. But this show without words has its own extraordinary eloquence. Take a look at the short video on The Cultch’s Wolf page (HERE). See this show. You’ll be howling with joy and amazement.

 

 

 

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