Born and raised in Queensland, Tannion left Australia at the age of 23 for a Europe trip, and accidentally spent two decades working and living internationally. He worked with DV8 Physical Theatre in London for years, as well as with Organización Efímera in Madrid, and returned to Australia in 2016 to work with Circus Oz as their artistic director.
Across June and July, Circus Oz will be setting up the Big Top in Melbourne’s Birrarung Marr park to perform their new show, Model Citizens. To get an idea of what circus lovers and newcomers can expect from these big top shows, we thought there was no better time than now to chat to the man who is both the artistic director of Circus Oz and the show director of Model Citizens – Rob Tannion.
“What I’m coining is a portfolio approach to the company,” says Tannion. “So there’s a much wider base of artists or ensemble members that we collaborate with, but not necessarily only one smaller ensemble. I want to tap into different audience bases. That makes us, as a company, keep on reflecting on what’s current, what’s new, and keep refining our artform.”
Tannion made it clear that he wasn’t wanting to change everything about Circus Oz – that the central ethos of the company was what drew him to work there in the first place. “One of the things that I really love about the company, and one of the main reasons I wanted to come and work here was the emphasis on community and social justice and making political comment,” Tannion says. “It will reflect the times we live in, but also I think we have a bit of a duty of care to make some sort of social commentary on what’s happening.”
One of the ways that Circus Oz focuses on social justice and community building is through programs like Black Flip, that work to provide a platform for Indigenous Australians to make their way into the circus industry. “The company has always worked with gender equality and having diversity on-stage,” says Tannion. “Having equal numbers of men and women on-stage is one thing, but also we have a strong female program that we run here alongside Black Flip. The ethos is women can and should be able to engage in acts of strength and power – not only poetic and beautiful acts – and vice versa for the men.”
Another element central to Circus Oz is the exploration of what it means to be Australian. This is something that Tannion is uniquely positioned to comment on, given his experience within Australia and abroad. “I lived in the UK for many years, and also I’ve spent the last ten years in Spain,” Tannion says. “This is one of the reasons why Model Citizens was born, I’ve been living as a foreigner, as an outsider, in other people’s countries for more than two decades, and I come back to ‘home’. What does that mean? Do I fit in? Is it still the lucky country?
“It’s not in any kind of preachy, negative way,” Tannion continues. “It’s more of a reflection on how I see circus as an artform, as having an ability to comment on things without needing to ram it down your throat.”
Model Citizens will be a visually-stunning, inclusive show designed to appeal to a broad audience base. Tannion assures us that there will be no shortage of oversized everyday items like a five-and-a-half metre safety pin, and that – above all – it will be fun. “If you went to see circus as a kid, and you think ‘clown with a red nose’ – that’s not the circus you’ll see,” Tannion says. “Will you see irreverence? Yes. Will you see going against the grain? Yes. Will you see lots of fantastic skill on unusual apparatus? Absolutely.”
