Head First Acrobats swing back into Fringe with Elixir Revived

Head First Acrobats are no strangers to high production value, raunchy humour, and showstopping stunts, with an impressive oeuvre of previous festival hits including GODZ, Railed, and PreHysterical. In 2025, the award-winning company returns to the festival stage with Elixir Revived, a new and improved redevelopment of their smash hit show Elixir (2018). Jam-packed with new routines and some of their most dangerous stunts to date, the show is set to make a show-stopping debut this season at The Aurora Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden from Saturday, February 1, until Sunday, February 16—with tickets on sale now. BEC WELDON caught up with co-founder, breakdancer, and internationally acclaimed acrobat, Thomas Gorham, to talk about Elixir Revived and the history of Head First Acrobats.

Hi Thomas, great to talk to you about Elixir Revived today! You first presented the show’s predecessor, Elixir, in 2018, where it won the ‘Best Circus and Physical Theatre Award’ at Adelaide Fringe. Is this a bit of a full-circle moment for the company?

This is absolutely a full-circle moment for our company. And it feels so good!

Elixir was the first show we ever created, and Perth was the first city we ever toured to outside of our home city in Melbourne. Now, after travelling the whole world with Elixir, Railed, and GODZ, we are back in Perth and ready to debut Elixir Revived!

It’s so awesome to give this show some love and apply some of the new techniques we learnt that made GODZ such a massive success.

Elixir Revived follows four scientists who attempt to create the mythical ‘elixir of life’ and are forced to test the concoctions on themselves, to gleeful mayhem! Tell us more!

That’s right, the scientists work for a pharmaceutical company with questionable workers rights. They are directed to experiment and test concoctions on themselves by a computerised voice acting as the director of research at the laboratory.

The circus acts are explored with different effects of each Elixir—heightening strength, balance, and dexterity to inhuman levels. All whilst delicately balancing the narrative and the comedy.

The three elements of comedy, narrative, and circus are intertwined to create a complete theatre experience, which feels so much more than the sum of its parts.

You’ve said that Elixir Revived features, without a doubt, some of your most dangerous stunts and apparatuses to date. Anyone who has seen a Head First Acrobats show knows that that’s quite the statement. Is there anything you can tell us about the new additions?

We have stolen some of the great acrobats from GODZ and Railed and brought them into Elixir with us.

Everything that you’ve seen in any of those shows is pumped up, with higher-level technical skills, which means more dangerous and hard.

This festival marks an eleven-year anniversary for Head First Acrobats as a company! How did the company come to be? Take us back to the beginning and the formation of the company.

It was formed way back then with the first iteration of Elixir. Cal and I bonded over the creation of the show, the building of the props, and the excitement of heading into the unknown as a startup circus company.

It’s so crazy that here we are, after having travelled so far, redoing the first show we ever made with our new skills.

Head First Acrobats has cultivated a fairly strong reputation for the daring and the risqué! Talk us through the process of finding your signature style. Was it something that you strove for from the start, or more of an organic process?

We love to shock people! We love that feeling when you do something that actually takes someone’s breath away. This doesn’t even have to be a trick; as you said, we are known for being quite risqué. We don’t shy away from things that will make the audience gasp and feel flushed.

For us it was very organic; we actually started out with the intention of our shows being all ages and family shows. We very quickly learned that we should be doing adult-oriented entertainment. 

Aside from your stunts, your sets and props are always innovative and visually appealing, like the recently memorable bottle juggling and bar scene in Railed. How do you approach development and devising with elements like sets and props?

Thank you. I love that bar scene! Head First Acrobats like to comprise a show with equal parts comedy, circus and narrative.

The comedy and circus help drive the narrative, and the narrative gives context and structure to the creation of the show.

Props and set have the same effect of giving context to the show and can help drive the storyline and deepen the immersion of experience. We tend not to design anything in isolation; we are always thinking about the overall look and how a prop or set piece can be utilised to drive the storyline of the show. That’s how a simplistic thing like a rolling bar can become so memorable in a show. 

Looking back at Elixir, compared to Elixir Revived, how would you say that the company has grown and changed?

Yes, Elixir has changed so much. First it was a two-man show, then a three-man show that toured for several years.

After that, HFA created Railed, Prehysterical, and our massive hit show, GODZ. These productions really took us to a new level, and we went from fledgeling arts company to full-blown touring circus, with our own tents and festival sites and everything.

It feels good to return to our roots and give Elixir some new life with the skills we have learned along the way, as well as new cast members! Elixir Revived is a four-man show—the largest cast to date!

As co-founder, you’ve been there since the beginning! Is there a moment or achievement in the history of the company that you’re most proud of?

When Elixir first won that award in 2018, that was the moment we realised that we were onto something special. Since then, GODZ and Railed have absolutely cleaned up on awards at Fringes Worldwide, but that very first time Elixir won gave us the confidence to keep creating the kind of work that we do.

We have to ask, what’s next for Head First Acrobats after this festival? Can we look forward to another show-stopping eleven years and beyond?

GODZ is going to West End in London, which is a new achievement and a life dream to perform at the highest level in theatre. We are hoping that it goes really well, and perhaps they will ask Elixir Revied to perform there as well. Once we finish the year off, I would love to create a new show. I don’t know about doing another eleven years, but perhaps Perth will have a new show from us very soon.

Elixir Revived is showing at The Aurora Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden from Saturday, February 1, until Sunday, February 16, 2025. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au