Most shows put on at the theatre tell a story. Straight plays, musicals, ballet, opera, they all have a story to tell that needs to translate from the stage to the waiting audience sitting in the auditorium. Some shows however, are not expected to have much of a narrative to communicate and are there for pure entertainment. So, what happens when a non-story telling piece of theatre decides to do something different and give their audience something to follow as they perform? Well you can find out with a visit to Cirkus Cirkor: Limitswhich I caught at the Royal Festival Hall.
Limits is conceived and directed by Tilde Björfors and sets out to imagine a world without borders and mixes music, movement and acrobatics to tell the story of movement both voluntary and especially forced. In with the physical, there are projections telling the audience the awful figures of people forced to move by other’s actions such as war and invasion. There are also voiceovers of migrants telling their story of fleeing their respective country.
However, this is primarily an acrobatic show and the various performers – Saara Ahola (Acrobatics, aerial acrobatic and vocals), Anton Graaf (Acrobatics and teeterboard), Einar Kling-Odencrants (Acrobatics and teeterboard), Sarah Lett (Acrobatics and roue cyr), Peter Åberg (Acrobatics, juggling and vocals) – put on a first rate show. Along with music composed and performed by Samuel ‘Looptok’ Andersson, the show consists of various set pieces around a particular piece of equipment.
Highlights for me included: the roue cyr – quite amazing and beautiful to watch, the juggling – which was fast and musical in a quite unique way – trampolining, and the teeter board – which brought back so many memories of playing with my dad’s Atari as a kid – but was quite amazing with the height reached by the two acrobats as they shot each other off the board. However, I did feel that there was an issue with time. Most shows of this kind would run for about an hour but, in this case, the running time was roughly 130 minutes with a 25-minute interval. Some of the scenes seemed a bit drawn out and, at times I felt that, for a family show, it was a bit slow. There were occasions when children could be heard asking what was happening which is never a good sign.
Tilde Björfors was responsible for the concept and direction and along with Olle Strandberg’s choreography, a set designed by Fanny Senocq, Stefan ”Drake” Karlström, Joel Jedström, Tilde Björfors and Jonna Bergelin’s costumes the team have put together a beautiful show that looks spectacular.
To sum up the show, whilst I thought it was superb from a technical and visual point of view, I had real trouble connecting with the ‘message’. I understand the real concern that the company had for the migrant cause but, for me at least, I’m afraid a rather hectoring storyline combined with superb acrobatics just didn’t make for fine bedfellows. The narrative made me feel uncomfortable and possibly that was the intention of the Cirkus Cirkor team, but I do think it was overdone. The Rubik’s Cube scene was amazing but for me the enjoyment was marred by the way Peter Åberg’s vocal accompaniment slid from warm and jolly to cold and depressing. However, I could be in a minority and certainly, going by the number of people who gave the performers a standing ovation at the end, a lot of the audience seemed to really enjoy the combination of story and acrobatics.
Overall then, Cirkus Cirkor: Limits is a visually and technically superb performance. Unfortunately, the show in its entirety just didn’t quite work for me.
Dawid Minnar Janine Ulfane – Photograher credit Alixandra Fazzina. “Survival of the fittest” is a phrase that originated from Darwinian evolutionary theory as a way of describing the mechanism of natural selection. Which means that even in the most inhospitable of placers, life will find a way – even if at times, you may look and think what’s the point? For example, in South Africa, the aloe plant is considered one of the country’s most powerful, beautiful and celebratory symbols. It survives out in the wild when everything else is dried. At the end of everything, the aloe is still there. And it is this survival that is at the heart of Athol Fugard’s A Lesson From Aloes which has returned to the UK and is currently in residence at the Finborough Theatre. Set in South Africa in 1963, where apartheid is at its height and the citizens are living in a paranoid police state. The play revolves around a middle-aged left-leaning couple – Afrikaner Piet Bezuidenhout (Dawid Minnaar) and hi
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