With Pedal Punk, ‘the mischief is on wheels’ at CCA

Cirque Mechanics rides into the Collins Center for the Arts on Sunday, Dec. 4 with Pedal Punk, an acrobatic circus production in which cycling is the escape from technology-obsessed society.

In Pedal Punk, a zany bike shop mechanic who interacts with cyclists and bikes ultimately repairs more than broken pieces. He creates wondrous machines that come to life.

At the center of creative director Chris Lashua’s 7 p.m. show is a gantry bike — a 22-foot-tall, person-powered, portable platform that includes a trampoline and space for jugglers and contortionists. Bicycles are in Lashua’s wheelhouse. For about a decade, he rode a BMX bike in professional bicycle freestyle competitions. He then performed in a German Wheel as the opening act of Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam.

In 2004, Lashua founded the Las Vegas-based Cirque Mechanics, which soon became a premier American circus with its unique approach to performance, inspiring storytelling and innovative mechanical staging. The New York Times called Pedal Punk “exceptional, evocative, eye-catching and grossly entertaining … in a word, excellent.”

More information and tickets ($24 and $29) are available online. Also, for tickets or to request a disability accommodation, call 581.1755.