Zing go the strings as tumbling acrobats fly Director: Yaron Lifschitz. Music: Debussy String Quartet. Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm, September 10. AS one of Brisbane's resident circus companies, Circa brings a well-deserved international reputation to this year's Brisbane Festival with Opus, a collaboration between the Debussy String Quartet from France and 14 acrobats. Circa artistic director Yaron Lifschitz has cleverly counterpointed the action of the circus acts with Dmitri Shostakovich's music, juxtaposing their energies with sophisticated flair. Lifschitz's understanding of the music and the circus act establishes a rich territory in which to create a dramatic experience. The opening of the show establishes an intimate relationship between acrobats and musicians as a pair of straps silently descend into the black space inhabited by only the four musicians, standing and playing across the front of the stage. A single male enters, carefully winds the straps around his wrists and slowly spirals into action. From this moment on the musicians and the circus performers are inextricably linked, sharing all the action on stage for the whole show. It is a complex relationship, spatially and dynamically. The musicians walk in and around the action and at times sit blindfolded, sharing the danger and excitement of the frenetic tumbling frothing around them while continuing to play undisturbed. There are many truly extraordinary moments in this show. Physically, there are incredible feats of strength and flexibility. Counterbalancing chains of bodies strung up high in the air seems an impossibility -- too much tension, something must snap -- but a gasping audience is spared an accident. Here, dramatic intensity is embedded in the physical act. At other times, the lighting, expertly designed by Jason Organ, works its magic in the black box of the stage space. The floor is a glossy black, the surround is dense black and three large screens upstage house vertical banks of light bulbs that unobtrusively provide their own dramatic effects. Typical acts such as balance, strength, trapeze and hoops are recognisable, but in no way typical in appearance or construction. They are innovative and fresh, often driven by themes of power, passion and domination: towers of bodies, three high, rise up from a scrum of performers; there are death-defying bungy drops; human swings become tossed bodies in ways you can't imagine. But it is Lifschitz's ability to produce an aesthetic experience from the accumulation of all the components of the show that speaks the loudest. It is breathtaking, it is beautiful, it is epic. Not even a trick gone wrong blows the power of the show. An astounding experience. Until Sunday. Tickets: $45. Bookings: (07) 3358 8600 or online. Duration: 75 minutes, no interval.