Not currently on display at the V&A

Poster

Poster
1987 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Ra-Ra Zoo was an influential British new circus company founded by Sue Broadway, Stephen Kent, David Spathaky and Sue Bradley who met in August 1984 when performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sue Bradley was one of the founding members of Circus Oz.

With a combination of 1980s' alternative comedy, street performance and circus skills, and influenced by the agitprop and political theatre of the late 1960s and '70s, they first appeared in London's East End at Malcolm Hardee's infamous Tunnel Club in London's Blackwall, and did their first full-length show Juggling With A Social Conscience in January 1985 at Battersea Arts Centre, as part of the London Mime Festival.

They went for the next ten years, touring successfully abroad and playing several seasons at the Hackney Empire after its reopening in 1986. Ken Meharg's inspired design of this poster with its plate-spinning musical notation and central explosion of a mysterious form filled with hidden eyes, faces, teeth-bared fish and animal forms is brilliantly representative of the surreal and fast-paced entertainment their audiences could expect.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitlePoster (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Printed ink on paper
Brief description
Poster designed by Ken Meharg advertising Ra-Ra Zoo, Shaw Theatre, 1987
Physical description
Pictorial and typographic poster advertising Ra-Ra Zoo, Shaw Theatre, 1987. Designed by Ken Meharg.
Dimensions
  • Poster height: 59.1cm
  • Poster width: 42cm
Marks and inscriptions
Transliteration
Object history
Associated Production: Ra-Ra Zoo. Ra-Ra Zoo. Shaw Theatre, Euston Road, London. 28.1.1987. Performance category: circus. Designer: Ken Meharg
Summary
Ra-Ra Zoo was an influential British new circus company founded by Sue Broadway, Stephen Kent, David Spathaky and Sue Bradley who met in August 1984 when performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sue Bradley was one of the founding members of Circus Oz.

With a combination of 1980s' alternative comedy, street performance and circus skills, and influenced by the agitprop and political theatre of the late 1960s and '70s, they first appeared in London's East End at Malcolm Hardee's infamous Tunnel Club in London's Blackwall, and did their first full-length show Juggling With A Social Conscience in January 1985 at Battersea Arts Centre, as part of the London Mime Festival.

They went for the next ten years, touring successfully abroad and playing several seasons at the Hackney Empire after its reopening in 1986. Ken Meharg's inspired design of this poster with its plate-spinning musical notation and central explosion of a mysterious form filled with hidden eyes, faces, teeth-bared fish and animal forms is brilliantly representative of the surreal and fast-paced entertainment their audiences could expect.
Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
S.4158-1994

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Record createdJuly 27, 2010
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