Beyond - Circa // Speigeltent, NNF2013 - 22.05.13
Animal Shenanigans in the Spiegel.
Having seen and enjoyed How Like an Angel at the Cathedral last year at the Festival, I was eager to see Circa's show 'Beyond' this year. The show used a lot of the same acrobats and dancers, who were all of varying body shapes, both women and men. There were oversized rabbit heads, bear costumes and a huge swaying piece of fabric to represent the ocean; the theme of the show was animals and how we are all, in our hearts, animalistic. The hour long show had a huge variety of different acts, from a man balancing on a stack of wobbling barrels and then, balancing boxes on his head, to a lady weaving her body through a tennis racket and asking a member of the audience to help her get out of it. There was much spinning and acrobatics from a very high hanging loop, artistes standing on top of each other, jumping on and off of each other, balancing bowls of water on their heads and other totally amazing and should-be-impossible things that made me determined to get back in shape! Although not sure I could ever walk backwards on my hands and feet...you should try it. The costumes were great, and the soundtrack very cool, from Sinatra to Rage Against the Machine via Bonnie Tyler (rather topical!). I only have a couple criticisms are that I thought it was going to be more 'animally', if that's a word, and I felt that a lot of the show was not as themed towards that as it could have been. Secondly, it was a pity that people in the audience more than 3 rows from the front (which was a LOT of the audience) couldn't see anything of the floor-based show, but only the ceiling-based parts, and it was really frustrating to not be able to see. Apart from those things though, it was very enjoyable!
Having seen and enjoyed How Like an Angel at the Cathedral last year at the Festival, I was eager to see Circa's show 'Beyond' this year. The show used a lot of the same acrobats and dancers, who were all of varying body shapes, both women and men. There were oversized rabbit heads, bear costumes and a huge swaying piece of fabric to represent the ocean; the theme of the show was animals and how we are all, in our hearts, animalistic. The hour long show had a huge variety of different acts, from a man balancing on a stack of wobbling barrels and then, balancing boxes on his head, to a lady weaving her body through a tennis racket and asking a member of the audience to help her get out of it. There was much spinning and acrobatics from a very high hanging loop, artistes standing on top of each other, jumping on and off of each other, balancing bowls of water on their heads and other totally amazing and should-be-impossible things that made me determined to get back in shape! Although not sure I could ever walk backwards on my hands and feet...you should try it. The costumes were great, and the soundtrack very cool, from Sinatra to Rage Against the Machine via Bonnie Tyler (rather topical!). I only have a couple criticisms are that I thought it was going to be more 'animally', if that's a word, and I felt that a lot of the show was not as themed towards that as it could have been. Secondly, it was a pity that people in the audience more than 3 rows from the front (which was a LOT of the audience) couldn't see anything of the floor-based show, but only the ceiling-based parts, and it was really frustrating to not be able to see. Apart from those things though, it was very enjoyable!
Having seen and enjoyed How Like an Angel at the Cathedral last year at the Festival, I was eager to see Circa's show 'Beyond' this year. The show used a lot of the same acrobats and dancers, who were all of varying body shapes, both women and men. There were oversized rabbit heads, bear costumes and a huge swaying piece of fabric to represent the ocean; the theme of the show was animals and how we are all, in our hearts, animalistic. The hour long show had a huge variety of different acts, from a man balancing on a stack of wobbling barrels and then, balancing boxes on his head, to a lady weaving her body through a tennis racket and asking a member of the audience to help her get out of it. There was much spinning and acrobatics from a very high hanging loop, artistes standing on top of each other, jumping on and off of each other, balancing bowls of water on their heads and other totally amazing and should-be-impossible things that made me determined to get back in shape! Although not sure I could ever walk backwards on my hands and feet...you should try it. The costumes were great, and the soundtrack very cool, from Sinatra to Rage Against the Machine via Bonnie Tyler (rather topical!). I only have a couple criticisms are that I thought it was going to be more 'animally', if that's a word, and I felt that a lot of the show was not as themed towards that as it could have been. Secondly, it was a pity that people in the audience more than 3 rows from the front (which was a LOT of the audience) couldn't see anything of the floor-based show, but only the ceiling-based parts, and it was really frustrating to not be able to see. Apart from those things though, it was very enjoyable!
