Roll up, roll up! The circus has arrived at Chiswick Home and Gardens, and on a stupendous night canvas tents and circus vans adorn the lawns, bringing a way of pleasure and the timeless really feel of a standard style of efficiency. The bundle surrounding Les Enfants du Paradis at Gifford’s Circus is complete and thought of, providing every part from a glowing glass of fizz on the door to popcorn and sweet floss outdoors the tent. The costuming is impeccable and dazzling, the set design magical: it’s all aesthetically fantastically and as finely balanced as an acrobat. However in some way I left…
Score
Glorious
An aesthetically spectacular assortment of extremely polished performances, however which is torn between two worlds.
Roll up, roll up! The circus has arrived at Chiswick Home and Gardens, and on a stupendous night canvas tents and circus vans adorn the lawns, bringing a way of pleasure and the timeless really feel of a standard style of efficiency. The bundle surrounding Les Enfants du Paradis at Gifford’s Circus is complete and thought of, providing every part from a glowing glass of fizz on the door to popcorn and sweet floss outdoors the tent. The costuming is impeccable and dazzling, the set design magical: it’s all aesthetically fantastically and as finely balanced as an acrobat. However in some way I left the efficiency appreciative, but not fully satisfied.
Let’s begin by saying there may be merely not a foul efficiency on this present. Each single act is superb, from the astonishing and exquisite aerialists Soeurs des Étoiles (Marika Ashley Gould and Marina Luna) to the outstanding stay band Quel Fromage, to the wonderful illusionist and hand-shadow artist Sergi Buka. These – and certainly all of the performers – are on the high of their recreation (some on the high of the tent!). There have been few acts I’ve not seen in some type elsewhere, however Buka’s fluid, transformative puppetry was outstandingly lovely and memorable. I used to be additionally genuinely astonished to see trapeze artist Alexander Saint-Michael stroll the wrong way up hanging from his ft throughout the area of the tent: this was actually breath-taking.
For me, a problem arises the place two worlds of historic and trendy collide. The marketed product is one stamped with traditional French artistry, the custom and magic of centuries of theatre-making and efficiency; it’s all there within the present and is great. Songs from Les Mis and interval items gel gorgeously with the vibe. Nevertheless, there’s then a crossover, with various trendy pop songs carried out to beef up the environment. Though enjoyable, this battles towards the established ambiance, undercutting the phantasm. For instance, the great Nell O’Hara as Clair de Lune leads us by the night in a sequinned nineteenth Century night gown, an element that nods to Phantom of the Opera, however then she picks up a microphone and begins singing pop and disco numbers, which detracts from her characterisation.
I additionally felt a bit of uncomfortable with the performing ponies, lovely as they’re. We’re reassured that animal welfare is of topmost significance, and I don’t have an argument with any claims on that, however it did appear an unnatural factor to ask to have them kneeling and bowing.
It is a very conventional circus given a dynamic trendy twist. The viewers beloved each second and had been dancing within the ring by the tip, so in case you are on the lookout for a mixture of genres it might be for you. For me, I’d choose it adhered to the one theme all through, to completely immerse us in its in any other case spectacular phantasm.
Directed by Cal McCrystal
Les Enfants du Paradis excursions till Sunday 1 October. Dates and venues may be discovered right here.
