Reimagining the circus for the 21st century is
not an easy endeavour but Cirque Eloise certainly were able to do this with a
distinct nod to the silent movies from the start of the 20th century
and indeed with elements of 17th century commedia dell’arte. Cirkopolis is a series of vignettes exploring
an escape from the mundanity of the working life in a dystopian city.
From the start we were presented with the central character –
a comical young man who is rubber stamping page after page after page until he
gets bored and starts fooling around at his desk. From this moment on we follow
him as he encourages his fellow workers to leave their work and enjoy the
moment. And enjoy it they do! The following scenes included magnificent feats of
physical performance from daring group juggling to a balletic demonstration of
the cyr wheel. A stunning use of the double-hooped German wheel was followed by a witty dance routine on the Chinese pole. We were given a masterclass
performance with the diabolo – well
with three at once! – which was stunning. Not all of the scenes included props
– at one point, a performer danced all around the stage without once touching
the ground – she was propped up entirely by the rest of the troupe and she moved
around from shoulder to shoulder, head to head and walked on the hands of her
companions. This really displayed fantastic strength and balance. The final
scene involved all of the cast having a raucous time in the office, flipping
each other from banquine to a teeterboard and showing off various aerial skills
before landing on a crash mat. These acts were classic circus performances,
perfected and polished by a small group of almost super-human troupers.
A 3D moving image projected onto the back wall was used at
various times in the show to take us to different parts of this city. The
imagery was mostly grey and intentionally dreary, with exposed clockworks and
cogs reinforcing the idea of the grind of life. These visuals were very well
made and added to the high quality entertainment. Costumes were mostly grey and
workmanlike – office suits or boiler suits, but underneath these, flashes of
colour represented something lying within each character and as they embraced
freedom - more colour showed. The music too supported each scene, particularly
the songs that brought a deeply emotive element to a couple of the solo scenes.
In spite of the high quality and highly effective trappings of set and costume,
reminiscent of films such as 'Metropolis'
or 'Brazil', the narrative was
disappointingly thin.
Transforming the circus for contemporary audiences has meant
weaving storytelling in to the performance and some of the short scenes in
Cirkopolis did tell a story very well – the artist on the cyr wheel, in a
bright red dress, was almost balletic and was able to tell us of her loneliness
and yearning without a single word. The “construction workers” setting up an
impossibly long Chinese pole brought humour and efficiency to what would normally have been a
mere scene change. Another beautifully crafted scene told us that the main
protagonist too was lonely – he practised his flirting on a red dress hanging
on a rail and subsequently performed acrobatic stunts on the rail. These scenes
set us up for a story that never materialised and I think that Cirque Eloise
was missing a trick here – it would not have taken much to weave these stories
together more coherently and, in particular, to bring them to a more climactic
finish.
That is not to say that the evening was not entertaining –
it is really very difficult to describe exactly the unbelievable, literally
breath-taking, stunts and acrobatics that occurred at a steady pace. The
audience were mesmerised from the very start and appreciation was shown by much applauding, gasps, laughs and cheers. This was a thoroughly fantastic show with world-class
performances.
Cirque Eloise is taking Cirkopolis on tour around Europe
and the world and can still be seen this week in Norwich. They performed for
only one night in Manchester, making it a real treat for the North West
audience.
Reviewer - Aaron Loughrey
on - 6/10/18
Keep this going please, great job!
ReplyDeleteWell written review shame the show only last one night
ReplyDelete