Chapter 200: Postcards Festival at Jacksons Lane

Hallelujah it's Legs Akimbo!(Photo: Hannah Nash)

Postcards Festival 2017 kicks off at Jacksons Lane next Tuesday (11 July), extended this year to three weeks of live performance and dead funny cabaret, circus and comedy. Expect mash-ups between genres and gender, nudity and explicitly adult content in some shows and others that are family friendly. 

Two Tongue Theatre's Sharlit Deyzac 

Along with several artists in Postcards Festival, I went along yesterday to the in-house presentation to the Jacksons Lane board to hear more about the line-up, as well as talk about the circus cabaret I'm curating - Shhh! Adrian Berry, Artistic Director, took the floor. This is his 15th season presentation, the seventh year of Postcards, and there was lots to celebrate. The idea for Postcards came about when Ade found that there were a number of bite-sized pieces of performance around that deserved a platform, but were not full-length, and the evenings are a series of snapshots into the cutting edge of performance art, comprising solo shows, double-bills and an eclectic variety. The evening is Pay what you decide, and I love the ethos of accessibility behind that, so book now and contribute on the night.

FAMILY-FRIENDLY SHOWS

Circus Abyssinia

The two shows I would definitely take my kids to see are Circus Abyssinia  and Morgan & West's Parlour Tricks. 

Circus Abyssinia comprises acrobats from the Ethiopian circus school set up by the phenomenal Bibi and Bichu, beloved of Giffords Circus and Gandini Juggling, who I have seen perform both in a Big Top and on stage at the English National Opera (click here). This show is an semi-autobiographical story of two young boys who dream of running of to the circus, as featured in the Giffords show Moon Songs (click here). Astonishing physical skills, extraordinary. Morgan & West are a duo of time-travelling magicians who serve up slick, jaw-dropping stunts with debonair flair.  They have fooled Penn & Teller, and that's enough for me.

COMEDY 

George Orange (Photo: Mark Robson)

Sharlit Deyzac, one half of Two Tongue Theatre talked about  Boys Club, their revolutionary drag king show. Mentored and directed by dark clown Peta Lily (see post - click here), I have seen their show twice now, encore!, but won't share the link to the review here for the spoiler alert. Funny, feisty and no holds barred.

Sean Kempton

Cirque de Soleil maestro clown Sean Kempton brings Stuff to Jacksons Lane after a knock-out tour over the past year. I saw it premiere at the London ClownFest last year (see post - click here). Through mime, dance and some gently brilliant audience improv, Sean takes us on a journey of love in all its absurdity and sheer joy. 

Great to hear George Orange is bringing his show First Lady to the festival, charting the true story of his relationship, falling for the man who ran for president... in a dress. I've seen George several times in Crashmat Collective and with the Mary Bijou Cabaret, and most recently at a work in progress at The Roundhouse. He has a deliciously wicked sense of humour, a smooth, genuine charm, and is a true raconteur.

Sarah Blanc with Jason Donovan

I saw Sarah Blanc last year in Flappers cabaret last year and so pleased she is back with a solo show It started with Jason Donovan. As someone who watched the first ever episode of Neighbours, this is especially for me, quite frankly. As well as being naturally hilarious, Blanc is also an amazing dancer, choreographing Alula's Hyena (click here) in the early days, so expect physical comedy on a par with spoken word.


CIRCUS

Tanter (Andreas Bergman)

From Blanc's "banter dance at its finest" to Tanter circus bringing Vixen to the festival in a London premiere. I have been following this company with interest on Instagram and social media for a couple of years now. Graduates from Stockholm circus school of DOCH, they pick apart female stereotypes in an innovative way through stellar skills in trapeze, rope and slackline, are very funny, and a entertaining jazz song about a uterus has to be a first.

Living Room Circus

It was great to hear from Living Room Circus,

who are an experimental company formed of National Centre for Circus Arts graduates. They bring circus to all sorts of unusual spaces and will explore every nook and cranny of Jacksons Lane in unexpected ways in The Penguin and I. Surreally talented, an immersive production, in many ways it will be like a circus blind date. 

Dizzy O'Dare

Cypher Stories is an evening curated by Kieran Warner and Chris Thomas (see post) melding hip hop, Cyr wheel and acrobatics. It will be high energy with awesome dance as much as circus skills on display.

Tightwire can potentially be a limiting discipline to have an entire show built round it, but it is possible as Dizzy O'Dare show in the beautiful show Rise (which I saw in its R&D stage - click here) exploring life and love with striking images, comedy, live music and tenderness. Double bill: Jair Ramirez and Laura Murphy. Jair's show Sugarman premiered at The Place in January (see post - click here), and is one man's struggle to escape the daily grind. Jair is well-known as a superb aerialist, but here you will also see his clown emerge and it's a beautiful show. Laura Murphy has an an "awkward" muscly, female body which she interrogates, as well as the space it occupies, in her exploratory show Contra.

CABARET and GIGS

Sadie Sinner (Photo: Lena Lenman)

With the image of Postcards poster girl Sadie Sinner from The Cocoa Butter Speakeasy all over social media and on tube posters, I was looking forward to seeing her in action. Even watching just a snippet of queer black female cabaret on a television screen, albeit on stage, on a Tuesday afternoon, had the Friday night vibes going. Soak in the cocoa butter jam of fierce skills, music and voices of performers of colour out and proud, and let them rub you up the right way.

If you're looking more for Sunday worship, what better place for some Pentecostal mojo that the ecclesiastical architecture of the former church that is Jacksons Lane? Fresh from Glastonbury Legs Akimbo bring Oh My God! It's The Church with a live band, praise the lord, and are determined to get the party started. Playfully sacrilegious, their website www.sexy-jesus.com says it all.

The Late Night Shop (Photo: Sin Bozkurt)

Billed as sex clowns you might be forgiven for thinking that The Late Night Shop cabaret is more red lights of Amsterdam than theatre festival, but it's less cock and more Le Coq, from where the artists all graduated. With a DJ on stage, expect grotesquely funny non-verbal clowning around. Hocus Pocus Theatre bring the world of a sleazy speakeasy to Jacksons Lane in Guilty Party with dress code of "uninhibited prohibition" and live music until midnight.

And what of the festival finale Shhh! on 29 July? It will have artists from the worlds of circus, burlesque, cabaret and just a touch of magic.  Post to follow, watch this space...

To book tickets and for more information: www.jacksonslane.org.uk/festivals/postcards-2017 (click here)

Chapter 199: "La Strada" at The Other Palace

All production photo credits: Robert Day

"This is an old story... this is a new story... and it starts with the sea... listen to the waves."*

Audrey Brisson - Gelsomina

A tide of bodies leant to the right, then to the left. An assortment of nautical ropes hung against a blue lit backdrop. One of them was a noose. I was at The Other Palace to see the musical adaptation of Fellini's film La Strada (The Road) that came highly recommended by a friend who had seen it the week before. Having not (yet!) seen the film, the moment I saw the trailer I fell for the live music and notes of circus. The story follows a young girl, Gelsomina, an innocent in every sense, who grows up by the sea and is sold by her mother for 10,000 lire to a travelling player Zampanò, a charismatic, angry strongman. They end up in a circus where she meets The Fool, a gentle soul, yet also, as clown, a natural agent provocateur.

Sofie Lybäck & Tatiana Santini

I loved the set that transitioned from the nautical to a Big Top rigged like three large sails with a mast for a king pole. The cast was astonishing, comprising a musical ensemble cum acrobats cum actors. Tragedy was foreshadowed in certain faces, painted pale with red shadows under their eyes, giving them a spectral hue. They were ghosts of circus for me, something uncannily familiar about them. The phenomenal female lead who plays Gelsomina had the voice of an angel, and physically reminded me of circus handbalancer and acrobat Tamzen Moulding**. Later I learned that Audrey Brisson is a bonafide circus acrobat as well as vocalist, playing the young girl Zoé in Cirque de Soleil's Quidam on tour. Quidam is the only Cirque show I have seen, both at the Albert Hall and via a video link thanks to Sean Kempton, the clown in the last ever performance. I was also interested to learn that Audrey's father is Canadian composer Benoit Jutras, who was Cirque's musical director and composed many scores. Gelsomina was played originally by Giulietta Masina, dubbed a female Chaplin, and in her baggy oversized suit and bowler had that Zamponò makes her wear to announce his acts, Brisson was very much the vagabond clown. She had a mischief and a wonder that made the heart lift and tear at the same time, embodying Fellini's vision that "all life is beautiful, for all its tragedy and suffering." 

Bart Soroczynski as The Fool, and cast

Stuart Goodwin's Zampanò bore a striking resemblance to Terry O'Quinn's enigmatic John Locke in the US series Lost, and channelled a terrific anger and strength, by turns menacing and lost himself. I loved the clowning around by Il Matto/The Fool (Bart Soroczynski), Zampanò's nemesis, who had the rangey physique and equilibristics talent of Ellis Grover and Sam Goodburn***. When he stated that he wouldn't be long for this world due to the nature of his job, I thought of all the crazy fools I know taking incredible risks and my heart lurched. As The Fool gave an impression of a tightwire act, with wings on his back, there was a touch of Fevvers in Angela Carter's Nights At The Circus. Soroczynski's actual circus skills impressed as well, both on ladder stilts and again when he played accordion on the unicycle. I also enjoyed the juggling of languages as he addressed Gelsomina in a melée of Spanish, German, French and Italian. The Big Top is a place where the world comes together in one language after all. But it was the touching tenderness with which he sketched out and encouraged Gelsomina's potential, and the light that shone in Gelsomina in turn, that really hit home.

There was a fabulous Carmenesque turn from cabaret singer Tatiana Santini, and the pragmatic resignation of so many widows brought to their knees in post-war Italy eloquently captured by Sofie Lybäck in various incarnations, while Teowa Vuong on violin was a virtuoso. All the ensemble had verve and flair, and it really was a stellar, Felliniesque fablesque production. If you are not a musical fan don't be put off. There are a number of innovative, contemporary musicals out there that capture and convey emotions without the jazz hands, and this is one of them. La Strada runs until 8 July at The Other Palace, see the video trailer below:

The circus consultant on the production of La Strada was Gwen Hales, who has worked as aerial director with La Strada director Sally Cookson on previous productions Peter Pan and Hetty Feather. Other credits include directing CirqOn the Seam's Betwixt and Between and performing/co-creating Pirates of the Carabina's Flown and as consultant on Tobacco Factory Theatre's Sinbad. 

Notes: 

*My impression of the opening lines.

** Tamzen Moulding @invertedco is currently working on a great project The Elusive Circus which I saw in R&D a while back, using The Night Circus as its touchstone. 

*** I first saw Ellis Grover traversing a guiding line on a Big Top at the Edinburgh Festival. He has performed with NoFit State and Pirates of the Carabina, has a great vlog and most recently was at Imagine Luton doing a double-chair stacking tilting trick on a pole that defies the law of gravity, again. 

I met Sam Goodburn at Stratford Circus when he was unicycling across a tightwire for NoFit State. Sam premieres his solo show Dumbstruck, with a good deal of clowning around, at Jacksons Lane tonight (3 July), 7.30pm.

Post-script:

While the production evoked the neo-realism of 1950s Italian cinema, it was rather a surreal afternoon for me. Having spent the morning in A&E with a dislocated finger having my wedding rings sawn off, I thought I must be high on painkillers and seeing things when I bumped into Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber not once, but twice, in the corridor in the interval... I learned later that The Other Palace - so named I assumed as it is opposite Buckingham Palace, but apparently not! - is his project sponsoring a new wave of musical theatre. Even curiouser, it turned out I had last been there as a child when it was The Westminster Theatre, watching my brother on stage, part of a musical theatre company. Mummy's Boy (Oedipus Rex!) is the one that springs to mind.

The juxtaposition of sea and circus in La Strada at The Other Palace struck me as something of a circus zeitgeist given recent posts reporting back on festivals Greenwich and Worthing, and thinking of the Bristol HarbourFest happening too. 

Chapter 198: Something Different: Greenwich and Docklands International Festival

"I know families who mark off GDIF and Greenwich Fair dates on their calendar in the same way they do family birthdays they wouldn't want to miss"

- Lyn Gardner

My grandfather visiting the Cutty Sark

What is GDIF? Good Dinner In Field? Great Day Impromptu Fun?! I was asked the other day by a friend who tried to decipher the acronym from what she could deduce from pictures shared on Facebook. Well yes, it is that, but it actually stands for the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival, an outdoors arts festival packed with  street theatre, circus, dance and all sorts of impromptu happenings, now in its 20th year. I take it for granted that everyone has heard of it, so firmly it is embedded in my diary, and yet I only came across it a couple of years ago myself. I was in Greenwich for the wedding of friends, and meandered through the festival on the way back from the breakfast the following morning. I watched Collectif Malunes (click here) swing from trapezes that in an inadvertent trompe d'oeil appeared part of the rigging of the Cutty Sark, wishing my grandfather were there, I saw exceptional acrobatics on the Russian board from 15ft6 (click here), and caught Gandini Juggling rocking it with 8 Songs (click here). I missed the festival last year when Mum was in hospital, but was back this year, this time with the whole family in tow.

I looked through the programme in advance and highlighted a few items I wanted to see particularly, but taking kids of different ages and interests makes life unpredictable, and part of the charm of a festival is often as much the unexpected encounters and happenings...

Actual Reality Arcade

A case in point. Computer games in physical from requiring human interaction - inspired! We particularly loved Donkey Kong and I found puzzling out stacks of shapes in Tetris as satisfying as ever. The kids loved the ping-pong bat with ball attached with elastic with which they would knock down a brick wall,  threading their way through an alarm of red string, and my youngest spent ages popping her head through different holes in a box avoiding a foam mallet. Simple things amuse. 

Simple Cypher - Roll up, roll up 

Simple Cypher were one of the main draws for me, as I have heard so much about the mesh of juggling, hiphop and Cyr wheel acrobatics of Kieran Warner and Christopher Thomas for a while now, and knew they'd have the street cred vibe my son would appreciate. So Mum, is this dance or is this circus?  He was hooked. I noticed my five year old quietly imitating their hand gestures and other kids couldn't help but gravitate towards them, literally at one point when a small child legged it into their space, and was scooped up and returned to their parent by Christopher with grace and humour. Bet that didn't happen in January at The Place (the centre for contemporary dance) I thought, and wondered how the piece changed according to its environment. What is clear is that it works in both settings because these two have charisma, and, like Barely Methodical Troupe in the previous post, have a piece here that appeals to circus newbies and the circus savvy alike. Catch them next at Jacksons Lane on 26 July in an evening mashing circus and hiphop where they will be joined by guest artists for Cypher Stories  www.jacksonslane.org.uk/whats-on/cypher-stories.

Dizzy O'Dare's  Baba Yaga

I know Dizzy O'Dare through their tightwire. Most recently having seen the beautiful show Rise, which is premiering at the Worthing Summer of Circus Festival (see post - click here). They also do street performing and I was very much looking forward to seeing Baba Yaga, the wise woman-cum devourer of Russian and Finnish folklore. She featured largely in my childhood thanks to the magical retelling of the the story, illustrated with silhouettes against backgrounds of sunsets, by Jan Pienowski (also the author of Mog & Meg!) in Kingdom Under The Sea. Others may have come across the legend through the Hellboy comic series (I hear). Either way, the witch,  gratifyingly sinister with wicked ad libs, glided across the ground like a dalek, with a hut on chicken legs in tow, and it was utterly brilliant. My 8 year old laughed with a side order of relish as she was inspected as a potential dinner and found wanting (needs fattening up!). Others let out squeals as a water pistol was aimed through the hut window. My friend Heather and I were embraced as "Sisters! When shall we three meet again?!" Hopefully sooner rather than later Baba Yaga...

PifPaf's Seed

I was delighted to catch PifPaf's show SEED after narrowly missing it at the Wandsworth Arts Fringe where I saw Hikapee Theatre's Home (see post - click here).  Seed was the tale of one man's energetic fight against slugs that threatened his crop, whether enlisting the help of his puppet pet chicken or electrocuting them. There was something of the inventiveness of a regular Caractacus Potts about Wilford's ramshackle hut. His character,  in his jean dungarees, greasing back his quiff in the mirror and fed up to the back teeth of slugging it out, had an air of an anarchic hillbilly crossed with John Travolta. I loved the moment when, with the gravelled tones of Louis Armstrong, he sang down a hosepipe about his blues at the lack of rain. The sponge slugs grew progressively larger until one took on the inflated dimensions of a bouncy castle and swallowed him whole. It was very cleverly done, and when Wilford finally got his wish there was a joyful rain dance that all joined in. 

Tom Ball

There are two things I know about Silver Lining's Tom Ball. He has a beautiful voice, and he is a superb aerialist. As well as at Jacksons Lane and National Circus I have seen him in other spaces too - at Edinburgh in the Hitchcock tribute cabaret (click here) and in Extraordinary Bodies in Dulwich Park (click here). I misread the programme though, and instead of a solo on trapeze I found him on stage with an awesome rainbow backdrop in Hawaian print doing a hula-hoop routine to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, which had us all dancing in the street, having a good time... 

Photo credit: James Berry www.jamesberryphotography.co.uk

Sir Ian McKellan

The crowd suddenly shifted to the other end of the street. What's going on? It's Ian McKellan, somebody shouted out. I heard the familiar booming voice long before I caught sight of a navy blue panama hat and sky blue suit, and scaled a wall to rest on a ledge to get a better view - circus training has its uses! I thought of my Cuban friend Cheddy Mendizabel, who came over to the Royal Court as a playwright for a season of readings of contemporary Cuban plays. McKellen read from Norge Espinosa's play Trio, directed by Richard Wilson, and the playwrights asked me to take a picture of them all together later when we were on the balcony chatting. I had to get the roll of film specially developed, and took the photos out to Havana the following summer. Ah, they would have appreciated this talk, I thought, and wished they were here to listen to him speak on Section 28, gay rights and how lucky we are in the UK to have freedom of speech. The speech was followed by a moving duet by a couple of young male dancers and then the crowd dispersed under a blast of pink confetti. Ever the magpie I watched my youngest scoop up piles and dance around throwing them in the air  for an encore. GDIF sparks  all sorts of spontaneity and that is the joy of it. A day well spent celebrating life and love.

Note: footage inadvertently recorded in slowmo is an interesting study in motion, sill better to catch them live...

Chapter 197: Barely Methodical Troupe's KIN

All photos courtesy of Worthing Theatres
Charlie Wheeller 

About a year ago I went to see a brilliant one man show at Battersea Arts Centre, a tour de force retelling of Milton's Paradise Lost. I was with author Lucy Ribchester, who also reviews circus at the Edinburgh Fringe for The List, but this was our night "off" circus. It was amusing then to watch the performer at one point ascend a rope, at another do a little invisible juggling. We chatted to him afterwards about it and it turned out he had a genuine interest in circus. "Did you go to the Roundhouse Circus Fest this year?" He asked. Oh yes, I replied, and proceeded to wax lyrical on one particular highlight, which he really should catch if possible one day, a thrillingly funny show called KIN by Barely Methodical Troupe. It turned out he knew the show already. He was Ben Duke. The Director.

JD & Nikki

Jonathan Bendtsen

KIN is Barely Methodical Troupe (BMT)'s second show.   In their first show, the award-winning Bromance, which I saw at the Edinburgh Fringe, Charlier Wheeller, Beren D'Amico and Louis Gift, who met as students at the National Centre for Circus Arts, explored the tensions and comedy that underpinned the dynamics of their three-way friendship. In KIN the trio is extended to a group with the addition of Jonathan Bendtsen, Arthur Parsons, taking on Louis' role, and acro duo JD & Nikki (Jean-Daniel Broussé and Nikki Rummer). Together they explore the shift in relationships as the boys compete for the attention of, and selection by, one woman in a Britain's Got Talent-style scenario, which works both in story-telling terms and as a metaphor for the politics of the group and power play. In both shows it is clear that, aside from the stellar circus skills, these performers have the X-factor because they come across as genuine and immensely likeable.

Crossing popular culture references with contemporary circus excellence was a great choice to open Worthing Theatre's Summer of Circus festival. Amanda O'Reilly, Head of Culture, said that she wanted the circus programme to catch in summer the footfall from the pantomime-goers in winter months. Looking around at an audience largely comprised of locals and families, I could see she had captured that demographic. The oval space with its vast, high ceilings was the perfect circus setting, and a much more intimate affair, closer to the action than The Roundhouse, where I had sat on the back row of the gods. 

JD Broussé, Arthur Parsons, Charlie Wheeller, Beren D'Amico

Upbeat, energetic, dynamic, dishevelled with smatterings of what looked like flour (roisin?) on their faces, from the moment the BMT boys tumbled onto the stage like wolf cubs, the audience were with them. Excitement and fun charged the atmosphere. Nikki, in matrix style coat and dark glasses stared on impassively, taking notes on a clipboard, as the boys, identified by randomly assigned numbers on their trousers, comically vyed for her attention. Displays of physical prowess, like 19 going for a backwards tuck off, and back onto, 39's shoulders, are met with blistering indifference. Put on pedestals, literally, these demigods (tongue in cheek) with laurel wreaths on the heads, were called in turn to audition for her favour. Awkward, risible moments followed: 108 played the accordian with that certain je ne sais quoi, 19 was brought to his knees, and still lower, in a hilarious dance serenade to Purple Rain, 39 performed devilishly skilled diabolo juggling and  07's stroke of genius was playing The Four Seasons on a finger piano. Each was either interrupted by a buzzer or, even more humiliatingly, by their Adjudicator simply walking off the stage and leaving them to it. 52's turn on Cyr wheel was rewarded with a banana, but the Lord of the Flies rivalry that it gave way to made being singled out in that fashion something of a poisoned chalice.

Get. Me. Down!

As the show progressed the acrobatics crescendoed in terms of risk, all the more so because it was a sweltering evening and potential for slipping through sweaty grips rose exponentially. By the time it got to the teeterboard routines, bodies catapulting through the air off a wooden seesaw, I found myself registering any hint of a wobble or stumble caught in a split second, and becoming utterly tense, as though by contracting all my muscles I could secure their safety.

That's the play, get the audience teetering while the performers nonchalantly sail through the air. Circus performers really do have a different take on gravity and mindset born of talent, curiosity and hard graft.  The clowning around throughout was hilarious, and there were also gentler moments of sheer beauty. As well as single turns on the Cyr wheel, I loved the duet between Bendtsen (39) and Wheeller (52). This time round it felt as though it had been expanded with new tricks in there too. Watching JD (108) & Nikki hand-to-hand in their element gave me goosebumps, especially with a darker undercurrent opening the duet. As number 07 Arthur Parsons had, literally, giant shoes to step into, but felt a naturally integrated, fundamental part of the whole. 

Nikki Rummer and Beren D'Amico

I loved the seamless silence with which Nikki flipped across the stage, or the way she walked across steps of human heads with fluidity and ease. Here was the one in control both of her physicality and emotions; contained, so it seemed. The aura of Mystery culminated in a visually striking three high, where a long cloak hid the middle and the base underneath, so only Nikki as flyer on top was visible. The haunting Kyrie playing underscored her status, to be revered, like a statue of the Virgin Maria paraded in Holy Week. As the cloak opened and the revelation, and realisation, came that she was way up there thanks to being on the shoulders of others, her fear became apparent. She was vulnerable. Get. Me. Down! She commanded, part pleading. The tables were turned. "What are you afraid of?" led to the confession "Being alone". The spell has been broken: acknowledging that without them all she was nothing, she was now part of the pack. 

The crowd was bowled over. I enjoyed the ad libs from the eight children sitting in a row in front of me, clearly circus savvy, and the anticipation, whoops and gasps from all around at the superb stunts and the infectious, eclectic music from Bowie to Piaf to Hair! The moment the show ended everyone leapt to their feet in a standing ovation and gave a thunderous applause. It was a joy to be a part of that and witness this new wave of circus on the coast. Congrats all round, and cheers!

Nikki Rummer, 07 Arthur Parsons, 108 JD Broussé, 19 Beren D'Amico (front), 52 Charlie Wheeller (behind), 39 Jonathan Bendtsen

Chapter 196: Worthing Theatres' Summer of Circus 2017

From left to right: Anyday, Elixr, Rise, The Wheel House

Lucy loves circus. She also loves the sea. Set on the South Coast in West Sussex, Worthing Theatres' Summer of Circus festival brings the two together for ten weeks and I went down on Friday for the launch. Worthing Theatres had come onto my radar increasingly over the past couple of years programming exciting circus companies, and for being part of the Coasters initiative, one of 11 partners that receives Arts Council funding this year to promote circus and street arts across the country in coastal regions. I wanted to find out more by meeting the Worthing team and getting a feel for the physical space and location. I also fancied a stroll along the pier that extends out from their Pavilion Theatre, which featured in a trailer for a show I had seen earlier this year (see Cul De Sac - click here for video)!

I had never been to Worthing before. In fact, as far as I knew, the last members of my family to go there were my Victorian great-grandparents, holidaying around the same time Oscar Wilde was there writing "The Importance of Being Earnest", naming his protagonist Jack Worthing in honour of the town. There was an elegance to the architecture, and I enjoyed the ten minute wander from the train station to Marine Parade, taking in the Punch & Judy  puppets and jester in a solicitor's front window, next to a statue of Laurel and Hardy, and round the corner from the poster for Barely Methodical Troupe's show Kin, in the shadow of seagulls that, I noticed later, made their mark all down the back of my blazer - clowns everywhere! 

The weather was glorious and the turquoise sea provided a stunning backdrop for the Pavilion Theatre, built in 1926. The building, described by Worthing Theatre's Head of Culture Amanda O'Reilly, "is like a brick and metal Big Top", and actually did have visiting circuses in the early days, with an in-built ramp especially for the elephants and at least one incident of an escaping seal! 

It is Amanda who is primarily responsible for bringing a new wave of circus to Worthing. Coming from a background in contemporary dance, and with a love of physical theatre that has a narrative, Amanda was drawn to circus she was seeing at Edinburgh Festival that mixed those two genres, that was both accessible and family friendly without compromising artistic integrity. Dressed in a fabulous circus print dress that evening, Amanda struck me as really good fun, and that was the vibe of the evening she and her team laid on.

Alcoholic slush puppies were served on arrival, and black and pink sunglasses (the theatre colours), on bar tables next to baskets of monogrammed slices of rock on bar tables, augmented the holiday feel. At one end was a DJ pumping out tunes, at another a graffiti artist was painting a stunning collage in celebration of the event. A photo-booth was decked out with all sorts of wigs and accessories and a happy crowd milled around drinking up the festival spirit. 

Amanda introduced the festival while a video behind her screened footage from each of the shows. The line-up is notable for the sheer variety on offer as well as the fact that what all these shows have in common is that they appeal to circus first-timers and fanatics alike. There is:  Barely Methodical Troupe's thrillingly funny Kin (post to follow); Acrojou's beautiful outdoors German wheel show The Wheelhouse that I have been trying to see for the past three years; Max Calaf Seve's touchingly gentle and life-enhancing trampolining show Anyday (I've seen extracts at Jacksons Lane and National Circus); the world premiere of Dizzy O'Dare's full-length uplifting tightwire show Rise (see post - click here); Head First Acrobats crazy zombie acrobatics and Cyr wheel antics in Elixir; Ockham's Razor's much-acclaimed, absolute must-see Tipping Point; Kate Lawrence Vertical Dance angelic new aerial composition in a secret location and Metta Theatre's retelling of Jungle Book (see post - click here).  

It was a terrific opening night, signalling all the fun that lies ahead this summer - check it out! In addition to the shows, there are all sorts of circus experiences and workshops on offer, including the artists above giving workshops in trampolining, tightwire, acro-balance, wheel and hoop. For dates, listings and more information see www.worthingtheatres.co.uk/summer-of-circus (click here).

A huge thank you for your warm welcome and congratulations to Amanda, Stephen, Pam, Alice and all at Worthing Theatres. It was my first time with you, but certainly not the last, and I'm looking forward to coming back with the family for more circus fun in the sun...

Chapter 195: Peta Lily's Topless

Last week I went to see Peta Lily's Topless at the Hackney Attic. A masterclass in physical comedy, comic timing, the female voice and emotional honesty. It was part of a #LaughorCry17 two act programme by To The Moon, founded by Artistic Director Sharon Burrell, passionate about serving up the darker side of life with a shot of laughter, and getting women's stories heard. In an interesting juxtaposition, Lily shared the bill with Ellen Waddell, a performer in her early 30s, who revisited her people-pleasing, perfectionist, ex-Indie rocker 2012 self, stripping back the lies she told with disarming honesty. Lily, on the other hand, rewound 20 years to the original Topless, setting the show in context by way of an introduction. The show is the first in a trilogy charting different stages of life, and was followed by Midriff and then Chastity Belt (click here). I was looking forward to the evening because I had enjoyed Chastity Belt as a kind of heads up as to what lies ahead, while Topless was written when she was around my age, speaks to the here and now, and, as I told Peta later, quite frankly I was in need of a good laugh.

Lily is the pioneer in the art of Dark Clowning, where the comedy is informed by pain and suffering, so I knew the show would contain elements of black humour, though I have it on good authority from a friend who has been on one of her courses that Dark Clown work delves even deeper into tenebrious material. Clowning in this sense also refers specifically to physical comedy, but from watching Chastity Belt I knew Lily to be a gifted poet, telling her story through verbal as much as corporeal language. I expected witty, and on occasion acerbic, reflections on being a woman, life, love and sex, but my god, I was not prepared for the emotional rollercoaster moving from the pain of a marriage break-up, to taking a younger lover herself (an old flame, we cheered!), to breast cancer and sticking-plaster sex, and ultimately to the death of her mother. It feels a bit strange to say then that I was laughing throughout, but that's the essence of dark clowning for you. It reaches deep into the most poignant parts without swerving into sentimentality. Life lands blows. We have to deal with it and laugh, or else we'd never get up again. There was macabre humour to be found describing the painful mangle of a mammogram ("it's like a strippergram but with a granny hug at the end!"), or when driven round the bend by her lover. Watching Lily, fed up, shaking her fist declaring "c'est foutu! c'est cassé! c'est passé! c'est oublié!" ("it's fucked! it's broken! it's over! it's forgotten!") - going round in circles on some imaginary Parisian roundabout, was simply a priceless, life-affirming moment. And that's the thing about Lily, she has élan, she has verve, she has style and she's lots of fun. Dressed initially in a scarlett trenchcoat and red beret, stripping off to a lacy black number, wiggling her derriere to distract the audience while she consults her script - in the programme it was classed as a reading but it wasn't, though every so often Lily mined the comic potential of losing her thread - she channelled Anne Bancroft whether as a regular Mrs Robinson or the dowdy book collector in "84 Charing Cross Road". A natural mimic, conjuring up a whole cast of characters from Peat Bog lady to her curly lashed dancer boy, Lily tantalised with a wicked wit that was very close to the bone, painfully, acutely funny, but never cruel. An utterly brilliant evening and a class act. 

Sometimes there comes a dark night of the soul... check out Peta Lily's blog at www.petalily.com/clown-dark-clown-theatre-practice-blog and contact her through her website for more information on dark clowning and upcoming courses in July and future events.

To The Moon is producing five female solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, including Ellen Waddell @ellenstarbuck.

See www.to-the-moon.net for more information.

Chapter 194: Alula Cyr's Hyena

"If you have never been called a defiant, incorrigible, impossible woman... have faith. There is yet time."

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author of Women Who Run With the Wolves

Photo: www.alulacyr.wixsite.com

The figure of a circus strongwoman, getting ripped and letting rip, is one that I have always admired, and so I was looking forward to seeing the all-female circus trio Alula Cyr in their show Hyena produced Underbelly Festival on the Southbank by Jacksons Lane last week. Set in the intimacy of the Spiegeltent, Jessica Ladley, Lil Rice and Fiona Thornhill, who met on the degree course at the National Centre for Circus Arts, showed their mettle and their friendship to be as strong as the steel Cyr wheels in which they revolved.

Women Who Run With the Wolves is a touchstone text for a piece that explores the power released by connecting into the archetypal Wild Woman, and Hyena is a neat twist, owing to the matriarchal organisation of that particular species, in which the female is as strong, if not stronger, than the male. Circus has all sorts of tribes, and, going with Edel, founder of the training space Flying Fantastic, it was ironic that we ended up sitting with a pack of female aerialists (birds of a feather!), including Layla Rosa, who directed the show along with Rosamund Martin. Together we whooped and cheered at the fierce skills, and, woah!, the sheer strength on display.

As the girls walked in their grace was silhouetted in the wave of long, diaphanous skirts. It was a femininity to be adopted, discarded and played with at will, like their flowing hair, at one point gently braiding each other's, at another giving it a good tug. Underneath the skirts they wore leotard shorts. I liked the understated simplicity of the design, the contouring strips on them reminding me of a surgeon's marker pen marking out the anatomy on the female body. The acoustics in the round and the music was great, by turns lyrical in tender moments, visceral when echoing tribal dynamics, and always rooted in the very essence of Alula. Ollie Clark, who wrote and recorded the music, is an extremely talented long-term collaborator of Lil. I have seen them duet on stage a number of times at the Vaults, National Circus and Jacksons Lane over the past few years and get the sense that their musical partnership has grown organically, woven into the very fabric of Lil's identity as a singer. Watching Lil sing while rotating on Cyr wheel was a joy. Watching her belt out emotion from the top of a Cyr wheel, yet keep her balance on one foot, was both nerve-wrecking and enthralling.  

Fiona is a phenomenal gymnast and carried off springs and flips with a calm, grounded confidence that was a study in physical precision. I had a soft spot for Jessica's comic turn as peace-making fulchrum between Lil and Fiona, diffusing tensions as glowering clouds gathered initially, through mischief and an irresistible sense of fun, mimicking and undercutting the dramatic posturing of synchronising prompts "And"... "Ready" ... "Change", teasing through sunshine. When they worked together as a triple it brought home the power of three, whether in acrobalance pyramids, co-ordinating impressive tricks and turns on Cyr, or lifting their wheels - hup! - in true circus strongwoman style. I also loved the way they linked the wheels together to create a Cyr ball and explored the new possibilities that afforded them. Ultimately, though, it was the show-stopping finale where the three became one vitruvian woman spinning round that left me reeling with the idea of an archetypal Wild Woman in us all.  

"I am mother, I am sister, I'm daughter, friend.

I am Venus, I am Lilith, I have no end.

I need to be loved and I need to belong.

This is my tribe, and this is our song"

Video by Remy Archer

Post-script February 2018: Since last summer on Southbank, HYENA has been in development and opens at Malden Family Theatre in Sussex. All the very best to Alula for the tour in this year celebrating 250 years of circus #circus250 - catch them when you can!