About Circus Monoxide

Circus Monoxide is an Australian contemporary circus based in Wollongong NSW - a coastal town just south of Sydney with an industrial history and a rich, living, indigenous heritage. We create, perform and teach circus in many different places and settings to all sorts of different people.

For a start, we do a show in a big top. Our show contains all the spectacular elements you'd expect from a circus: trapeze, acrobatics and juggling. It also contains lots of elements you wouldn't expect: like a double-decker bus; like aerialists plunging into a bath filled with water; like a live band whose refined musicianship is matched by their ability to make it up as they go along.

We run Half High Circus - a fantastic circus training program for young people. In regular weekly classes, we teach circus skills and performance to around two hundred young folk from ages two to twenty-five, plus classes for adults of all skill levels. Click on the Half High link at the top of the page for more info.

Circus Monoxide has always been underpinned by the belief of its members in 'popular theatre' - theatre that appeals to people who don't go to the theatre all that much. We aim to provide high quality live performance and learning opportunities to the general public, in particular, to people living in regional and rural areas. The members of our first audience - at the Bathurst 1000 touring car race in 1995 - were far more interested in high-powered cars than theatre, but they loved our show.

And in case you're wondering, that's where the name comes from. The Bathurst 1000. The smell of high-octane exhaust fumes drifting down from the mountain inspired the name Circus Monoxide.

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