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Circus comes to town - dude
All Pictures © 2010 Theatre T&C/Valérie Ramese Cirque
Éloize -
iD Birmingham Hippodrome
IT'S Circus Jim, but not as we know it!
This is what they call
nouveau cirque
, in this case circus with attitude, with streetwise swagger, brashness and some
amazing skill, all to a pulsating beat and a backdrop of some comic book
metropolis. The backdrop changes with each act thanks to some
clever projection on to the set dominated by a trampowall – the
perpendicular wall behind a trampoline, of which more later. The start is like a 1940's musical with the cast
in elegant fashions hurrying to and fro in a city street scene until we
are left with two lovers, Philippe Renaud and Justine Méthé-Crozat as
the rest of the cast fade into slow motion. Our lovers argue and then the chemistry takes
over to create some amazing acrobatics with Justine balancing high in
the air much of the time on just one hand. It is a display of balance,
agility, skill and strength. Justine also does some amazing things later on an
aerial hoop, holding on merely by balance and at one point, the strength
of her ankles. In a sort of hint of West Side Story there are
two urban gangs at work in the plot which gives us Victor De Abreu
Oliveria strutting his stuff on a Chinese pole to impress the sexy
Justine. He shows amazing strength to hold his body out horizontally in
a sort of crucifix turned through 90 degrees with a particularly
impressive controlled fall the full length of the pole. The big number, the showstopper though is Thibaut
Phillipe who can do things on a trial bike which most people would
struggle to manage on foot.
Not only can he bounce from cube to cube on one
wheel, but he manages to climb 20ft or so up the back wall, all on a
bike. In his second set some poor soul dragged up
from the audience found himself lying on the floor with bike and rider
bouncing around his nether regions and around his head. He will think
twice about booking seats in the front stalls again. The set changed to a construction site where
Nicolas Fortin and Hugo Ouellet-Côté amazed us with some juggling with
so many balls it was impossible to keep count. His later display on the aerial straps, suspended
from a hook and doing complex gymnastics while whirling around in mid
aid made my shoulders ache just watching. There were gentler moments as well with Emi
Vauthey giving stunning performance on aerial silks, two lengths
of silk suspended from a hook with her rolling up and down, hanging,
flying all wrapped in the cloth and spinning in mid air. That was good but her contortion act was just
unbelievable. She must have ball and socket joints and rubber limbs. I
have never before seen anyone able to run completely around their own
body while lying on their stomach – think about it and wince. We had a great skipping rope extravaganza with
both gangs first threatening then challenging each other with the entire
cast involved which gave us Thibaut back with the bike skipping two
ropes at once and Victor doing a sort of jumping press up skipping two
ropes at once. All very elaborate, complex, fast and great fun. Xuan Le does some things on in-line skates which
are just not possible throughout the show including weaving around a
line of close set cones, skipping and then skating almost horizontally
with Emi and her silks. Lisa Eckert gave an impressive display on the Cyr
Wheel, that's the big hoop you stand inside and roll around the stage. It looks great fun and she makes it look very
easy – fun yes, but easy . . . I suspect not. It takes balance as does Ryan Shinji Murray's
party trick. He managed to do a handstand on two chairs balanced at an
angle of 45 degrees on top of a column of eight chairs. The end of the show is spectacular with Lisa,
Nicolas, Hugo, Phillipe and Ryan in an endless succession on a
trampoline at one point bouncing like a jugglers throwing balls against
a wall. The trampolining skills individually were high
but to combine them with , two, three, four and at times five people
jumping at once is just amazing. Get the timing there wrong and it
is a block booking at A&E. After a while you are losing any sense of up or
down as bodies fly around, twisting and turning, spinning and bouncing.
As finales in any sort of circus go, that is up there with the best. Nouveau cirque, contemporary
circus, has been around since the 70s - this Montreal based troupe
started in 1993 - and dispenses with the idea of circus animals,
rings and ringmasters. Instead there is a mix of
circus and acrobatic skills mixed with theatre and Cirque
Éloize adds pulsating urban music and settings
with street dancing, high energy, enthusiasm and bags of fun. Roger Clarke Nothing to do with this show but interesting
- the circus ring
was invented by a man called Philip Astley in 1768. Astley was born just
up the road in in Newcastle-under-Lyme and is regarded as the father of
the modern circus. He ran Astley's Amphitheatre of Equestrian Arts
in London in the 1770s, regarded as the first circus, with riding
lessons in the mornings and trick riding shows in the afternoon. His
first ring was 62 feet in diameter but he soon changed that to 42
feet, which has been the international standard size for circus rings
ever since. The final diameter was what he decided to be the best size for man to stand on a cantering horse and retain his balance through a steady speed of the horse and centrifugal force.
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