The board of the 45-year-old company said it would be a “devastating blow” for performers, but it had no choice because it was about to lose federal funding. NickdMiller CircusOz AusPol
Circus Oz, the Melbourne-based contemporary circus company founded in 1977, is closing its doors for good after its members rejected the terms of a review imposed by the federal government, which would have changed the way the company is run.the company announced its first post-pandemic show, which was to have put performers in the alleys and secret spaces of inner-city Melbourne. The company is now unsure if that show can be put on while the organisation is being wound up.
“[The management team] inherited a mess and they not only cleaned it up they were excelling,” she said. “We’d completely flipped the table around for this company, resuscitated it to the point where it wasn’t just going to survive, it was going to thrive.She said she had made “huge personal sacrifices for the company”, moving away from her partner just before the pandemic hit, and “gave a red-hot go for the circus industry”.
The company has undergone a radical restructure in anticipation of the review’s findings, cutting half its administrative jobs, making more diverse hires, and shifting to a program of smaller productions and a big artist development program – all done in the hope of retaining federal support. Company treasurer Mike McCreadie said with 70 per cent of their funding coming from government, “take that out of the equation and we’re just not a viable business going forward”.
The company had not yet decided whether it would be able to stage the first two shows planned for 2022. They have the funds to put them on, but it was unclear if they would be able to stage them in the midst of the company winding up.
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