Review: Elixir Revived at The Pleasure Garden

Elixir Revived at Aurora Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden
Friday, February 6, 2026

Fringe favourites Head First Acrobats returned to Perth this summer with Elixir Revived—a harder, better, faster, stronger reimagining of Elixir, the very first production the company ever staged.

The Pleasure Garden was buzzing on Friday night, but nowhere more so than inside the dazzling Aurora Spiegeltent, where the crowd was squeezed in so tight you had no choice but to make friends with strangers. Once the lights went down, the rabble of excitement dulled to a hush, and the spotlight drew everyone’s attention to centre stage.

Directed by John Walton and devised by Thomas Gorham and Callan Harris, Elixir Revived is centred around three young men who are cast as test subjects in a biological experiment. Working for an authoritarian pharmaceutical corporation, they are compelled to test their concoctions on themselves under the instruction of an unseen, computerised female voice.

As each vial is consumed, the characters’ physical abilities begin to mutate—starting small with heightened flexibility, pec flexing and beatboxing. But as the drinking continues, they attain more and more powers while simultaneously wearing less and less clothing.

As the trio levelled up, so did the stunts. Highlights included a flip-filled teeterboard routine, a trapeze sequence with a performer suspended by nothing but a mouthpiece, a tangle and twirl rope sequence rising up to the apex of the tent, and, unforgettably, a heart-stopping knife-throwing act that had blades landing mere inches from the acrobats’ dancing bodies.

Apart from the stunts, the show was peppered with cheeky skits and twists to keep the audience amused—an ‘errant’ knife throw here, a urine sample gone awry in the front row there, even a zombie moonwalking across the stage. The acrobats’ mischievous rapport with the crowd only grew as the night went on, and at times it felt they were going to dissolve into laughter along with the audience.

For the most part this was done well, but some of the transitional moments slowed the pace. With a largely scriptless narrative, there were points where momentum dipped and it felt like the cast were filling time while the next act was being set up.

Described as ‘Cirque Du Soleil meets Magic Mike‘, Elixir Revived met its expectations for its jaw-dropping stunts and its ability to make the girls go ‘wooo’. If you’re chasing high-flying acrobatics, slapstick humour and a sugary dose of eye candy, this show won’t disappoint.

And judging by the quality of this show, it would be well worth checking out Head First Acrobats’ other Fringe offering, Lash Out, an all-female circus cabaret taking over the Lotterywest De Parel Spiegeltent this week for the final five days of Fringe World 2026.

BRAYDEN EDWARDS