The new triple bill of work directed by Samuel Tétreault, one of the eponymous co-founders of 7 Fingers (7 Doigts…), is a programme of collaborations with three world-class dance choreographers, and incorporates performers from both the dance and circus worlds.
CIRCUS DIARIES: Henry VI, by Omidaze
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff; 10th February 2016 This stunning production of Shakespeare’s three Henry VI plays, merged into one rich adaptation, brings the terror of civil war to the industrial void space of the Wales Millennium Centre through a veil of chilling beauty. Omidaze Productions presented an all-female Richard III here last year, and now return with the prequel. […]
CIRCUS DIARIES: He Who Falls, by Cie Yoann Bourgeois
Barbican Theatre, London International Mime Festival; 6th February 2016 As the curtain rises for He Who Falls (Celui Qui Tombe when not anglicised for this festival), a wooden platform lowers. A platform that, we see, has a haphazard scattering of bodies lying across it, starting to slide towards the edge as it begins to tilt. This is […]
CIRCUS DIARIES: All Genius All Idiot, by Svalbard
All Genius All Idiot is the youngest of the shows at this year’s Mime Festival, and Svalbard‘s springlike greenery sometimes yields vibrant novelty with an exciting energy, while at others makes me feel like a long-suffering nanny hoping the company will get along with the maturing process soon.
CIRCUS DIARIES: The Return by Circa
Australian company Circa arrive back on UK shores with a wash of scenes that paint a tense journey of migrancy, and the pressures that can bring to human relationships. The six acrobats (Nathan Boyle, Daniel O’Brien, Nicole Faubert, Bridie Hooper, Brittannie Portelli, Duncan West) are joined by classical musicians who play themes from Monteverdi’s opera Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, which also appear in colder, reworked digital adaptations.
CIRCUS DIARIES: ANECKXANDER, by Alexander Vantournhout and Bauke Lievens
Alexander Vantournhout has been rather the poster child for contemporary circus lately, as images and reference to the prize-winning ANECKXANDER (the artist’s second show) seem to have been regularly crossing my line of sight over the last year. The one-man performance is more amusing than I had anticipated from the stark photographs, and also more referential to the wider institution of circus: what it means to be a performer, what it means to be an audience member.
CIRCUS: No Man’s Land – by Collectif And Then…
No Man’s Land is all about borders and boundaries, and what happens when you cross them. It starts with the audience being ushered, military style, into the space and commanded to turn off our cellphones. By the time we’re seated (some of us having been ordered to switch seats with others) we have all accepted the performers’ absolute authority.
VIXEN – Circus City Festival
It’s no wonder that we females may seem a little crazy at times when, as shown by the three ladies of Norwegian company Tanter, the identity of 21st century womanhood is framed by the preceding hordes of cultural demands and expectations as well as our present needs.
CHAOS – Circus City Festival
The Lords Of Strut have hit Bristol in all their lycra legginged, high-top and headband wearing glory, on a mission to change people’s lives through the power of dance. And through deep, body-rocking laughter. In Chaos, the two brothers Famous Seamus and Seantastic (Cormac Mohally and Cian Kinsella) have decided to share with us their life-coaching wisdom in a motivational seminar that, as promised, gives us Everything.
TWO-LEGGED ANIMAL – Circus City Festival
Ziggy Slingsby has created an intriguing proposition with the trilogy of Original, Raw and Encounter – three versions of her Two-Legged Animal show – which each offer a different way to experience the equine embodiment that bases the trio of work. How do you choose between them? Or do you see them all? How will one influence your reception of another?
Head over heels: Circus Diaries at Circus City 2015
For several months I’ve been talking with the producers of Bristol’s second biennial circus festival (now Circus City, evolved from Creative Common) about the possibility of running some sessions opening up the subject of critical discourse over the course of the festival. What we were finally able to settle upon with the resources available was an […]
CIRCUS: Clockwork – Sisters
This is the 99th time the trio of men who call themselves Sisters have performed Clockwork, and the way they move together is meticulous. The action has all the slickness of Cirque du Soleil, but presented up close and personal.
Clockwork slaloms between abstract and surreal with a sparse and functional aesthetic, full of cleverness and experimentation. The key questions that underlie the work are about how a dancer, an equilibrist and an acrobat could come together; how a Frenchman, a Dane and a Spaniard may be united; how three separate and distinct physiques can work as one. Precision engineered to each other’s movements are Valia Beauvieux, Mikkel Hobitz Filtenborg and Pablo Rada Moniz, who founded Sisters five years ago in Sweden with the commonality of Chinese Pole technique between them, and a desire to learn each other to find a shared movement language.
CIRCUS: Clockwork – Sisters
This is the 99th time the trio of men who call themselves Sisters have performed Clockwork, and the way they move together is meticulous. The action has all the slickness of Cirque du Soleil, but presented up close and personal.
Clockwork slaloms between abstract and surreal with a sparse and functional aesthetic, full of cleverness and experimentation. The key questions that underlie the work are about how a dancer, an equilibrist and an acrobat could come together; how a Frenchman, a Dane and a Spaniard may be united; how three separate and distinct physiques can work as one. Precision engineered to each other’s movements are Valia Beauvieux, Mikkel Hobitz Filtenborg and Pablo Rada Moniz, who founded Sisters five years ago in Sweden with the commonality of Chinese Pole technique between them, and a desire to learn each other to find a shared movement language.
CIRCUS: Clockwork – Sisters
This is the 99th time the trio of men who call themselves Sisters have performed Clockwork, and the way they move together is meticulous. The action has all the slickness of Cirque du Soleil, but presented up close and personal.
Clockwork slaloms between abstract and surreal with a sparse and functional aesthetic, full of cleverness and experimentation. The key questions that underlie the work are about how a dancer, an equilibrist and an acrobat could come together; how a Frenchman, a Dane and a Spaniard may be united; how three separate and distinct physiques can work as one. Precision engineered to each other’s movements are Valia Beauvieux, Mikkel Hobitz Filtenborg and Pablo Rada Moniz, who founded Sisters five years ago in Sweden with the commonality of Chinese Pole technique between them, and a desire to learn each other to find a shared movement language.
WINGS IN MY HEART – Edinburgh Fringe
Big Sexy Circus City, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 14th August 2015 Wings In My Heart is an extraordinary work of circus innovation developed by the husband and wife team Rigolo: Lena Roth and visionary artist Maedir Eugster – famed for creating the Sanddorn Balance that has found recent internet celebrity, and which is performed by their youngest daughter Marula Rigolo as a […]
WINGS IN MY HEART – Edinburgh Fringe
Big Sexy Circus City, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 14th August 2015 Wings In My Heart is an extraordinary work of circus innovation developed by the husband and wife team Rigolo: Lena Roth and visionary artist Maedir Eugster – famed for creating the Sanddorn Balance that has found recent internet celebrity, and which is performed by their youngest daughter Marula Rigolo as a […]
B-ORDERS – Edinburgh Fringe
Underbelly Circus Hub, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 12th August 2015 B-Orders, from the Palestinian Circus Company in association with Aurora Nova, can legitimately reclaim the term ‘political circus’ for the art form. In a beautifully expressed production, the two performers – Ashtar Muallem and Fadi Zmorrod – evoke the tensions and lack of options available to young adults […]
THE HOGWALLOPS – Edinburgh Fringe
Underbelly Circus Hub, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 12th August 2015 The Hogwallops is the first touring production from Jackson’s Lane, presented by Lost In Translation Circus, a company that emerged from the then Circus Space in 2008 and is now run by Massimiliano Rossetti and Annabel Carberry. The show is a broad character study of a rambunctious […]
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM – Edinburgh Fringe
Underbelly Circus Hub, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 11th August 2015 International company Cirque Le Roux have produced the most complete fusion of narrative theatre and top flight circus skills ever to grace our shores in The Elephant in the Room, an exquisitely crafted whodunnit farce of tell-tale acrobatic excellence. Monochrome regency decor that makes me think of a Malmaison […]
DOLLS – Edinburgh Fringe
Underbelly Circus Hub, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 11th August 2015 Darkly disturbing, the brand new show from Cirk La Putyka, Dolls, premieres in Edinburgh and brings a theatrical world of stark dereliction to the stage of the Circus Hub’s Lafayette venue. The fabric of society is broken down in both the scenography of portentous urban decay and the ability […]