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Photos - Simonne Michelle-Wells

Imagine a group of people 5 metres above you swaying hypnotically on poles like a field of wheat in a breeze as the Melbourne skyline lights up in a burst of fireworks to a chorus of happy sighs from the audience. This was my experience of Ringing the Changes, by Strange Fruit at the second festival opening on Saturday night.

Strange Fruit is a multi-award winning Melbourne-based performing arts company that fuses theatre, dance and circus, using a unique elevated medium. Ringing the Changes is a new show for the troupe and sees them swaying among the Federation Bells at Birrarung Marr, playing a specially commissioned score by renowned composer Graeme Leak.

The show is a visual and auditory delight, made all the more so on Saturday night by the Federation Square Ferris Wheel lit up in a neon blaze directly behind it and a perfect spring evening that saw hundreds of people gathered for the show.

I’d so love to have a peek at the bellies of the Strange Fruit performers – steely six packs must abound, I’m sure. The effortlessness with which they glide from bell to bell is deceptive. Not only do they have to get to each bell in time to hit it with a high degree of musicality, they have to make the process look graceful, too.

This free performance finishes Monday night and I urge you to see it. Take the kids and, afterwards, let them roll down the grass covered hills at Birrarung Marr. It’s the best fun they’ll ever have for free.


Strange Fruit
Ringing the Changes

Venue: Federation Bells, Birrarung Marr
Dates/Times: 7:30pm, 9 - 12 Oct 2009
Tickets: FREE