What to expect at ‘Frisque’, Singapore’s homegrown circus extravaganza happening this December

What does this show mean to you and the other acrobats and performers, especially with the cast being mostly homegrown talent?
While the show promises an exhilarating experience for the audience, it also provides a professional platform for local talent to showcase their skills and perform on the big stage. Nurturing homegrown talent is really important to me and the whole cast and crew; we want to play our part and transform ‘possibility’ into ‘reality’ for even more local artists.

From the production team to the performers and musicians, this show is a showcase of Singaporean artistry, supported by our international friends who believe in this vision.

You have some very exciting guest performers flying in from overseas, including a fire performer and somebody from Cirque du Soleil. Can you tell us more about them?
We have Kris Madden flying in from London, a guest performer from Cirque du Soleil. It’s really exciting to have him join us on stage and showcase Singapore’s vibrant circus community. He’s also been looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with us and to learn from and enrich each other.

We also have our very first fire performer in this production, Aifique Khaikal, who’s coming in from Malaysia and making sure the show is quite literally lit!

Is there a storytelling element to the show?
Generally, the concept of 来Frisque—下Leh! is a big celebration; a celebration of love, a celebration of friendship, a celebration of everything in between. There’s no full story that runs from beginning to end, but you will follow certain characters and see their progress throughout the show.

What’s the process been like of organising such a large-scale production?
The process has been pretty stressful, primarily because I’m working without a blueprint. There’s a lot of it that looks doable in my head, but then I think, what if it’s not funny to the audience? What if it looks good in my head and I put it out there and it sucks? You know, there’s so much of that.

We had our first show last year and we were all really anxious because we didn’t know if the audience was going to enjoy it. The thought process is kind of like, it looks good to us, but will it look good to them? Are they going to laugh? Are they going to clap? After that first show, all the anxiety went down because everything worked out. So I hope that it will go smoothly this time around as well.

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On the production planning side, last year was quite messy because I had no idea what was going on. This year is so much better. We were able to fix a lot of things behind the scenes from last year, which has been really encouraging.

How are you balancing creative directing and your own practice and training?
In a way, I’ve kind of sold my soul to the bigger picture. I know that as a performer, all of these things I’m doing for the show are going to slow down my progress. I need to maintain my standards, and slowly improve a little bit while I take care of everything else. I know that I’ll never be the best of the best in terms of performing on stage but it’s something that I was willing to sacrifice when I decided to do this.

Is this how you envision your circus path in the long run, more leaning towards directing rather than solely performing?
I love performing. It would be great to have someone else come in and take over my role as a producer and a director without losing my artistic vision. But if someone else were to take over and completely change everything in a way that doesn’t align with what I envision, I wouldn’t want to be in the production either.

Is there anything about the show you can share that will get people excited to go?
Boys taking off their shirts! No, seriously, I think this is a huge chance for us to prove who we are. When people think of a local circus, they think of low quality and a low budget, something they reluctantly attend and fall asleep at. I’m 100 per cent certain we’re going to prove them wrong when they come to our show.

What’s your vision for the circus scene in Singapore going forward? What do you hope this show might lead to?
Our big dream is to make this a sustainable career path for future generations of circus performers. I want people to be able to dream of being a circus artist, and I want this to be a feasible career in Singapore. I want to set the path for this.

Anything else you want to share?
The show is going to be amazing!

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