Circa

Circa

The Lowry, 4 November 2011

When you watch this thrilling show you realise that human beings can be the physical equal of any animal.

But animals would not have the will, imagination, inclination or courage to defy gravity or risk injury as these performers do.

The show combines circus skills – acrobatics, contortion – with gymnastics and modern dance.  Many feats, most actually, involve more than one person and require coordination and communication of a high order, not to mention trust.  Some embody narrative, jokes or a dramatic situation; one or two could in fact be a long forgotten prehistoric ritual.  Especially so when you consider the way in which Kimberley Rossi, the only female in the troupe, was passed around like a prize, a resource the males fought over.  Caveman antics writ large.

 Kimberley Rossi got to wear red shoes in one intriguing sensual routine, mind.  These were peep-toe court shoes, according to The Ultimate Authority, though Americans, for their own obscure reasons, would call them pumps.

Circa as a show is intense, concentrated, fast-moving, polished and very classy indeed.  Expect a forest of formidable feats, a jungle of jaunty japes.

However good you think this show will be, it will be better.  Circa is at The Lowry again tonight then it tours Europe, tour dates are here.

Slava’s Snowshow

Slava’s Snowshow

The Lowry, 26 October 2011

Photo by A. Lopez

It is a very funny show, this one, though you’d be at a loss to say what it is about exactly.

There’s a lot of dastardly and decorous clowning, a series of absurdist vignettes and the odd plaintive appeal for understanding and forgiveness.  You could say that the audience create the show as much as the performers; their role is sometimes to get or elicit a response.

One clowns spends a lot of time dying – an arrow through the heart eventually does him in – and it is hilarious (but why?) and another, the archer and murderer, takes to the stage angling for a round of applause for his sniper’s instinct, his fine hand and eye coordination.  And he gets it, naturally.

If this were not a children’s or rather a family show, you catch yourself thinking, it would be a radical absurdist drama and quite a good one at that.  The kind of thing Daniil Kharms might write and get away with – remember his ‘Pushkin and Gogol’.

Anyway, Slava’s Snowshow is a real treat and a timely reminder that sometimes a man falling off a chair can be the funniest thing in the world.

Slava’s Snowshow is at The Lowry until 30 October, and then tours throughout the UK.  Full tour dates are here.

The Moscow State Circus

The Moscow State Circus
The Lowry, 17 March 2011

At the start, when the tune of Boney M’s ‘Rasputin’ rings out, you realise that this is unlikely to be an authentic Russian circus experience.

It is enjoyable and entertaining enough, though.

Rasputin’s spiritual journey, the crooked road he often walked, provides a narrative hook for the various circus acts.  As an example, he is tempted by a siren who, Eve-like, proffers him an apple to bite into.  And then we get an archer and his lovely assistant, their act ending when the apple is shot off the archer’s head.  That kind of thing happens throughout.

There are acrobats, jugglers, some very funny clowns and other acts, including the aforementioned archer and his lovely assistant.  All the acts that you’d expect to see in a circus, in fact.  But no lions or other big cats, not nowadays.  No elephants either.

If you’re looking for glitzy family entertainment, though, you’ve come to the right place.  The children in the audience loved it, and loved one very clumsy clown especially.  What the author of Concerning the Spiritual in Art would have made of it is anybody’s guess, mind.

The Moscow State Circus is at The Lowry until 20 March and details are here.  It then tours the UK up until the beginning of May.  Full tour dates are here.

Fallen by Upswing

Fallen
By Upswing
The Lowry, 14 January 2011

Sera Adetoun in Fallen. Credit: Hilary Shedel

A young woman descends from the sky like a wounded angel.

She feels the ground underneath her soles as a throbbing ache, she walks on fire. Her body, her very breath, is a burden when she comes to contemplate all that she has lost.

Fallen is an enchanting work of theatre that uses circus skills (acrobatics, above all) along with dance to tell a story, a story of imprisonment, loss and detention.  It could be described as ballet + or perhaps ‘hypermodern’ dance.  In this latter conceptualisation, Vicki Amedume, founder and artistic director of Upswing, choreographer and performer of Fallen, would take the role of Richard Reti, innovator and artistic genius.

If you are seeking a theatrical experience that is transporting, immersive and replenishing, then Fallen is prescribed.  And there is not only the spectacle of the story on stage; Jules Maxwell’s score is splendid too.

Fallen is touring throughout the UK up until the middle of April 2011.  Details can be found here and  here.

Inside Out by Cirkus Cirkor

Inside Out
By Cirkus Cirkor
Featuring Irya’s Playground
The Lowry, 31 August 2010

A remarkable feat of storytelling.

It uses circus acts – acrobats, jugglers, funambulists and the like – to tell the tale of a life, a young woman’s spiritual odyssey.  There is also music, courtesy of a live band, Irya’s Playground.

The splendid thing about the show is that it never becomes simply a series of stupendous turns; there is always an overarching narrative.  For each act manages to move the story forward, by either a modest notch or a sizeable jolt.  And the songs pack a hefty emotional punch, unlike some of the ersatz music that’s often associated with stage shows.  In fact, Irya’s Playground is a band that could easily command the stage on their own.  No doubt about it, the songs stand up tall and true.

If you bring a child along, you’ll need to shield him or her from a couple of scary moments (e.g. one act ‘dies’ and becomes lifeless, a corpse), but no more than that.

An exhilarating, though curious, cultural creation from the nation that brought you The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.