“I totally fell in love with this genre [of performance] at the age of ten, when I attended a birthday party and the person performing there was the head of the local kids circus school,” Wegner recalls. “After this birthday party, I absolutely wanted to join the club.” It wasn’t anything too serious at that age, just an extra curricular activity he enjoyed doing a couple of times a week, but Wegner was one of the lucky few who discover their passion and their niche at a young age. He attended a circus and performance university in Brussels until 2003. “And ever since, I’ve been involved in different projects and different performing genres actually; a couple of dance things and also acting in theatre plays. But mostly circus, of course.”
The original concept of Leo actually came to life in 2008 as a short comedy skit. “I developed this character [Leo] and created a little clown act for Circle of Eleven, which actually started as a six minute little thing, but already with this inverted gravity idea,” says Wegner. “After a one year run, [Circle of Eleven] asked me if I was up to create a whole show for Leo, and they would put a creative team together. So we started creating the piece between Berlin and Montreal in early 2010.” The creative team is an eclectic bunch consisting of a couple of Germans, a French Canadian, an Anglo-Canadian and a Mexican. This cross-continent team managed to overcome the distance and create magic together, because after Leo’s premiere at Edinburgh Fringe Festival that year, the show picked up three awards and has been on the road ever since. Wegner reports the latest count of performances to be 185, from Iran to Zimbabwe, New Zealand to Poland, Canada to Germany, and now, finally, Australia.
Because it is free from the constraints of dialogue, Leo is easily portrayable to people all over the world. But it’s the content of the show that makes it particularly relatable. “There’s no text, but it’s a pretty clear story of this character,” Wegner explains. “We follow [Leo] for one hour and it’s pretty obvious what happens to him. In the beginning he’s just sitting around, and then he discovers that actually the gravity is coming from a different angle today, and actually sometimes there is no gravity at all. Everything he knew about how to behave in space is put into question, but he gets very innovative with the new situation and finds a way to cope with it. He draws himself some companions and this actually discovers some hidden talents within him. But like every human being he exaggerates and at some point he loses track of what he created. Those cute little drawings become monsters and follow him and persecute him. He just wants to leave this little box, [not just because of the monsters] but because he discovered a new aspect of his personality and he wants to head off to new shores and use what he has discovered about himself. The box is a metaphor for our personalities, which can be very limiting. Everybody knows that feeling when you want to just leave yourself behind you and make something new.
“It’s a hybrid, a very contemporary expression,” Wegner says when asked to define Leo’s performance genre. “There is acrobatics, there is dance, there is drawing. There is a section which is an animation kind of thing using video projections. I play live music. A lot of clowning, mime, physical theatre. It really is a crossover.” So it’s not anyone who can play the demanding role of Leo, but Wegner and his team are indeed on the hunt for new Leo’s to keep up with the huge demand for the performance throughout the world. Wegner happily concedes that the 300 shows booked this year is too much for one man, “We’re really taking care to find talented people who can play Leo, because there really is enough work for them.” And, Wegner hopes that Leo will be able to go on successfully without him. “I think another year [as Leo] at least,” he says while discussing his future, “but I hope the show will have an even longer life. Time will tell me the moment when to leave this project behind, but I will always stay attached to it.”
Despite the busy and very international year ahead, Wegner is particularly excited about coming to Australia. But like most Europeans at this time of year, the main draw card is the weather. “We’re looking forward to it, it’s just so great,” he smiles. “This weather here [in Berlin], you can’t imagine how depressing it is. I can’t wait to escape. I’m ready for the sun.”
BY KATE MCCARTEN
