Created by Harley Mann and the Circa Cairns ensemble
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
Circa Cairns is based in Gimuy (Cairns) on the lands of the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people.
We acknowledge that art has been practiced here over many millennia, and that it remains a fundamental way of life for the Traditional Caretakers and Custodians of the lands on which we work, create and perform today.
We cknowledge that we are here as visitors, and accept the responsibility to respect and care for these lands and tread lightly. Always was. Always will be.
THE WET
By Circa Cairns
Created by Harley Mann and the Circa Cairns Ensemble.
Director Harley Mann
Original Lighting Design Johlian Gliindon
Reimagined Lighting Design Morgan Maroney
Costume Design Helen Lavis
Sound Design by Circa Cairns and Guy Webster
Ensemble
Margaret Church Koop
Johnny Brown
Violetta Van Geyzel
Jacob Kenner
Manelaya Kaydos Nitis
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
The wet season in Far North Queensland has long been misunderstood. People fixate on superficial discomforts - the heat, the humidity, those eternally damp socks. But in doing so, they overlook the profound beauty and intricate relationships that flourish in these moments. This show aims to pierce that surface, to reveal the deep beauty I see, the beauty that mob who live here have always known.
To create this work, we embarked on a journey through remote Far North Queensland, waiting for the rains. When they came, they became our catalyst for creation. We let the resonance of the wet seep into our acrobatic language and shape our artistic choices. We listened deeply - to locals, to the transforming landscape, to the intimate interconnected relationships that emerge when the rain begins to fall.
This immersion was deliberate and vital. I believe the most powerful stories emerge from those who hold them in their bones. For our artists to truly transport audiences into the wet, they first needed to forge their own profound connection to Country.
What fascinates me most about our creative process is how deeply Cultural and traditional knowledge has become woven into the fabric of the show. Take our use of long spears - we didn’t simply acquire props. We harvested them using traditional methods, cleaned and straightened them as was done generations ago.
That knowledge now lives within both our artists and the work itself, ready to be passed to future ensembles. We’ve created something rare: a living cultural artifact that exists in the electric space between traditional and modern practice.
Harley Mann Director
THE FOUR KEY MOMENTS IN THE WET
Our journey through Far North Queensland revealed four distinct phases that shape both the season and our performance. Each carries its own wisdom, passed down through generations of Traditional Custodians.
Indicating Events
Nature speaks first in whispers, then in declarations. The red cockatoos arrive searching for food. Ants and insects begin their steady march to higher ground. Yellow flowers unfurl their petals. These are not mere changesthey are messages written in the language of Country, understood by those with educated eyes. It’s not an occasional process, but as constant conversation with the natural world. This is the time of watching, of reading the landscape’s ancient stories.
Surplus
Before the rains descend, life intensifies. Fish swim closer to shore, animals seek higher ground, and an abundance pulses through the land. This surge presents us with an ancient moral question: How much should we take? The challenge is finding balance - gathering enough to weather the coming storm while respecting country’s bounds. In modern times, this question echoes in stripped supermarket shelves before cyclones, revealing how we still wrestle with this fundamental dilemma. Perhaps it’s the mounting heat that drives this frenzy, this forgetting of ancient wisdom about sufficiency.
Confinement
When the wet finally arrives, it pushes us inside - both physically and emotionally. The earlier frenzy dissolves as the heat breaks. Air becomes thick, wrapped around us like a weighted blanket, everything dank and clinging. Yet in this confinement, we find connection. We’re drawn together, sharing stories, exploring our histories. The wet strips away our usual defences, making us vulnerable, bringing us closer. In this dampness, our humanity becomes clearest.
Release
Finally, the storm breaks. This release is both an ending and a beginning, part of a cycle that has turned since time immemorial. As we emerge from shelter, The kids play, the waterways run clear again. Birds return with gentle curiosity, and we survey both damage and renewal. This is the moment of reflection, of witnessing life’s persistence and the endless cycle of regeneration.
ABOUT CIRCA CAIRNS
Circa Cairns is a proudly First Nations-led contemporary circus ensemble, based in regional Queensland, dedicated to creating bold art from the nexus of place and culture.
Fuelled by values of thrilling, challenging and connecting its diverse team which features a majority of First Nations artists, creates, presents and tours new circus productions and innovative engagement programs.
Circa Cairns is a Circa initiative supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation.
Circa Cairns received support in 2022 by the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.
