Meet the 59-year-old acrobat flipping stereotypes in Casting Off

At only 17 years old, Debra Batton was told she was too old to be a gymnast, so she quit. Now as a 59-year-old circus performer, she's no longer convinced of corporeal deadlines.

“I was doing gymnastics around the period of Nadia Comaneci and these gymnasts who were at the top of their game at 14. But to have this idea of yourself at 17 that you're too old for something is just so ridiculous,” says Batton with a hearty burst of laughter.

Casting Off’s (from left) Spenser Inwood, Sharon Gruenert and Debra Batton. 

The Melbourne performer, who has previously worked with Circus Oz and Legs on the Wall, is set to appear in the Sydney premiere of the ageism-busting show Casting Off.

The multi-generational piece of circus features a Millennial, a Gen Xer and a Baby Boomer and is part of the winter fringe festival Bondi Feast. The show is the work of Batton, 42-year-old Sharon Gruenert and 31-year-old Spenser Inwood, who comprise circus company A Good Catch.

“We really break down the stereotypes of what you'd expect of different generations,” says Batton. “I think that's surprising for people.”

After premiering in 2017 at experimental circus festival Sidesault, Casting Off  has since hit Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Melbourne Fringe Festival and Adelaide Fringe, scoring the Total Theatre Award for circus last year at Edinburgh Fringe.

“When we were making the show we constantly found ourselves talking about life and feminism and different things," says Batton. "We decided that we would just make talking part of the work, so we made a circus show where we talk whilst we do three-highs and throw each other into somersaults and balance on chairs on top of tables. We talk about everything from the banal shopping list to our philosophical positions on life.”

The show's title refers not only to shrugging off generational and gender expectations, but also to the knitting term. The three women play characters named Slip, Purl and Knit and wear eye-catching costumes of multicoloured yarn handcrafted by Inwood, in what Batton says is an example of how the show subverts beliefs about age. “I feel like people assume I'm the knitter – I'm not!”

Instead it was Inwood's hobby that inspired the unique outfits. “When we were trying to decide on costumes we were really struggling,” says Batton. “We didn't want Lycra bodysuits. We didn't want sequins. It's not that sort of show, it's not cabaret with feathers and sequins.”

For Batton, one of the positives of being an older entertainer is the freedom that comes with the passing years.

“Performers get in their own way very often with their anxieties and their desire to please,” she says. “I found myself very much embracing that I'm not going to seek approval. I was a much more relaxed performer, because there's a little bit at 50 where you feel like what have I got to lose?”

Attendees might be shocked by the vigour with which Batton hurls herself around the stage, but she's found that plenty of audience members have felt energised by her athleticism.

“Older women come up to me and say 'I'm so inspired and want to get out there and do more things',” she says, “and you know, even young women are incredibly inspired by it as well.”

Batton has no plans to stop her acrobatic stunts any time soon. It may sound morbid, but would she happily take her last breath doing a tumble? “I would, I would. I would much rather keep going until I can't. I have no retirement plan.”

Casting Off is at Bondi Pavilion from July 9-13. 

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