Review: Snatch and Grab at The Pleasure Garden

Snatch and Grab at The Big Top @ The Pleasure Garden
Saturday, February 11, 2023

6/10

Snatch and Grab entertained audiences at The Pleasure Garden on Saturday, with a high-octane, bordering on wild and occasionally feral, approach to circus and performance.

Created by Fem-punk collective Snatch Circus, consisting of Mish Mash (Mish Thorburn) and Reckless Ross (Angelique Ross), the show had strong undertones of anarchy and female-driven power and chaos.

Despite being branded as a circus performance, it certainly deviated from the traditional notions of a circus show, and often featured long periods between circus acts. Its incorporation of theatre, poetry and physical movement in many ways rendered it as more akin to a piece of contemporary theatre, with evocative scenes confronting retail-driven mass consumption and pollution and global warming, interspersed with moments of circus.

Incredibly stripped back, with the occasional prop, mostly including a collection of household appliances, Snatch and Grab saw both performers use objects such as blenders and toasters in imaginative, dangerous and surprising ways. Ideally, however, a greater sense of coherence between acts, or clearer articulation of the meaning behind the often random and non-congruent scenes would have been developed.

For a show with such a high-energy reputation, the awkward sense of pacing throughout the piece was disappointing and had a significant impact on the audience’s engagement with each act. Scenes which had the potential to be punchy and exciting often continued for too long, over which period the audience’s attention began to wane. Gags which were funny the first time, were often repeated several more and, the building of tension between pieces was too exhaustive, and occasionally longer than the pieces themselves.

There were pockets of exciting moments such as Ross’s impressive balancing act on wine bottles, and Thoburn’s’ exquisitely bendy floor gymnastics. Ross’s juggling of tomatoes throughout the act was also an interesting touch and Thoburn’s Kmart-themed anti-establishment poem was an exciting moment which focused and nailed the rebellious undertones of the show. The performers were no doubt incredibly talented, and their short moments of spoken comedy hit the mark, however the show itself would have benefitted from some pacing and transition workshopping.

Snatch and Grab was an entertaining display of female-driven circus performance and creative talent and certainly an interesting new approach to physical performance art. This show would potentially suit those looking for something a little different and left-of-centre this Fringe season.

BEC WELDON