LEO

CIRCLE OF ELEVEN (GERMANY)

Tuesday 19 March - Saturday 23 March, 2013

Maidment Theatre, Auckland

FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

A funny, astonishing and at times bamboozling work that challenges the senses and tests perceptions of reality, Leo, comes to Auckland Arts Festival 2013. The newest creation from Berlin-based Circle of Eleven (Soap), Leo fuses energetic live performance with innovative video projection and leaves audiences wondering which way is up and which is down.

Beguiling and ingenious, Leo tells the story of a humble man with a huge imagination and the gravity-defying powers of the greatest superheroes. Stuck in a room with seemingly nowhere to go, Leo tests the limits of his strange, new world and makes the delightful discovery that he is, in fact, superhuman. Leo can scale walls like Spiderman, dance on the ceiling like Fred Astaire and meditate in mid-air like an Indian guru.

Directed by the Montréal actor and director Daniel Brière, Leo is based on an original idea by performer Tobias Wegner. It challenges the laws of nature and breaks the rules of gravity as well as genre, with multi-talented dancer, actor, trampolinist, gymnast and clown Wegner delivering a perplexing and perspective-bending experience.

Leo incorporates an intriguing mash-up of gymnastics, parkour, clowning, live drawing and amazing feats of stage design and projection. Having won several major awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe including the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, the Three Weeks Editors Award and a Scotsman Fringe First Award, the show has since gone on to dazzle audiences and critics in New York, Berlin and around the world.

The show sold out at the New Zealand International Arts Festival 2012, so the Auckland Arts Festival wanted to share Leo's absurd entertainment and ingenious optical acrobatics with an even wider audience in 2013.

Circle of Eleven is a creative platform for innovative performance. Their projects blend music, artistry, dance and theatre into a unique form of entertainment, which carries on the spirit of classic variety theatre at a contemporary circus level.

Performer and originator of Leo Tobias Wegner completed his acrobatic training at the Belgium University of Contemporary Circus Arts (E.S.A.C.) in Brussels. In 2008 he met Circle of Eleven and presented them with the idea for Leo, a show incorporating live action with tilted cameras, creating exciting visual effects. After being developed over two years between Montréal and Berlin, Leo became a one-man performance under the direction of actor and playwright Daniel Brière.

www.aaf.co.nz

engaging and imaginative... simply...unmissable -The List, UK

It's an eye-teasing, grin-inducing lesson in the art of seeing double -Time Out New York

A gravity-defying spectacle -New York Times

SEASON DETAILS

Show Leo

Where Maidment Theatre

When Tuesday 19 March - Saturday 23 March, 6.30pm

Sunday 24 March, 4pm

Duration 1hr 5min no interval

Price A Reserve $58 / Friend/Conc/Group $53/ Child $45

B Reserve $53 / Friend/Conc/Group $48/ Child $39

Bookings Book at THE EDGE: www.buytickets.co.nz / 09 357 3355 / 0800 289 842

Group bookings: groups@the-edge.co.nz / 09 357 3354

Book at Maidment Theatre: www.maidment.auckland.ac.nz / 09 308 2383

Information www.aaf.co.nz

Social Media Facebook: facebook.com/Aklfestival

Twitter: @Aklfestival

Video http://www.circleofeleven.de/shows/leo/leo

Media enquiries Siobhan Waterhouse, Publicist. P: +64 (0)9 374 0317 | M: +64 (0) 22 126  4149 | E: siobhan.waterhouse@aucklandfestival.co.nz

CREATIVE CREDITS

Production: Circle of Eleven

Based on an original idea by and performed by: Tobias Wegner

Director: Daniel Brière

Creative Producer: Gregg Parks

Set and Lighting Design: Flavia Hevia

Video Design: Heiko Kalmbach

Animation Realisation: Ingo Panke

Costume Design: Heather MacCrimmon

Choreography: Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola

By arrangement with Arts Projects Australia