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Transit

Underbelly Festival Southbank

Reviewed – 31st May 2019

★★★★

“it’s impossible not to gasp and coo at the acts of physical skill on display”

We’ve all been there, hearing the airport announcer warn of delays and, knowing you’ll be there for a while, settle in for some intensive diablo-ing to pass the time. No? Must be just FLIP Fabrique then.

Director of the Québécois circus troupe Alexandre Fecteau has chosen an apt name for this show. It follows a (very) loose plot around the travelling life, offering insights into the shared joys and lonely challenges of life on the road, and the stacked trunks on stage literally represent the group’s transit through airports. But transitions of other sorts are referenced, too; we see a revelation from one player that she and her group are about to experience a seismic change.

The performances, as would be expected from such an accomplished group, are remarkable, as are the range of skills on display (including, memorably, a record-breaking fifteen different skills within ninety seconds from Jasmin Blouin). The occasional stunt fails but the goodwill in the audience is high and these glitches just serve to highlight the technique on display. It helps that the camaraderie of this troupe of six is clear; they seem to having a great time together.

This is especially clear in the stand-out acts, with the diablo a highlight; Jérémie Arsenault has exceptional stage presence. As billed, it’s hard not to grip your seat at times during these performances, especially those which see Jade Dussault hurled into the gods, almost grazing the lighting rigs.

Transit also features amazing music choices – and the geniuses have saved audiences from furtive mid-performance Shazam-ing (guilty, your honour) by putting the full song list on their website. The strength of Bruno Matte’s lighting design also needs to be mentioned, including beautiful flashes of rainbow clubs (mesmerising in motion) and zippy neon skipping ropes.

Pierre Rivière’s bare-chested straps display celebrates the incredible physicality of circus, but the second appearance of straps is one of the less successful set pieces as Rivière dons a fat suit, munching doughnuts. I suspect this is a clowning rib at the strains of maintaining physical condition during months of training and touring, but it comes off awkwardly as simply mocking the idea of a larger figure in action and jars with the otherwise inclusive feel of the show.

There’s also the unavoidable fact that this group has just one woman, and at times there’s a risk of feeling as though she’s a prop to be balanced with or tossed around. This risk is seen off for the most part by her powerful solo hoops performance, where she commands the stage. This set piece is moving and beautiful, which is to be celebrated, but it exemplifies one of the issues here – the tension between emotional, adult material alongside family-friendly playful scenes.

For all these small flaws, it’s impossible not to gasp and coo at the acts of physical skill on display. I found myself hand on mouth then laughing aloud at times – and for an evening of circus, can you ask for more?

Reviewed by Abi Davies

Photography courtesy FLIP Fabrique

Transit

Underbelly Festival Southbank until 7th July

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Soap | ★★★★★ | May 2018

Circa: Peepshow | ★★★½ | July 2018

Little Mermaid Circus Sensation | ★★★½ | July 2018

Aliens Love Underpants | ★★★★★ | August 2018

Black Cat: Bohemia | ★★★★★ | August 2018

Little Death Club | ★★★★ | April 2019

On Reflection | ★★★★★ | May 2019

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

Rite of Spring

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed – 9th May 2019

★★★★★

“the glorious, stylised sketches of now alien rituals keep the audience spellbound”

As we enter to the sound of chanting, a single red-robed monk moves carved Chinese characters from a human-sized heap into flat lines around the stage. Behind him, ten dancers sit cross-legged. They wear richly-coloured bodysuits and gold headdresses dripping with jewels. A gong strikes sonorously. The scene is arresting. It’s going to be a spectacular night.

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring caused a scandal when it was first performed in Paris in 1913. While the choreography of the original dance has been lost, one can imagine that if it was anything like director and choreographer Yang Liping’s creation, indeed it might raise eyebrows. Exploring pagan springtime rituals, including human sacrifice, invariably calls for some powerful iconography, and Liping’s handling is no exception. We’re treated to sometimes graphic moments of sexuality, fertility, fecundity and rebirth.

As the performance begins the statuesque godlike figures who had remained stock-still as the auditorium filled begin to move, seeming to crackle and flex with the arrival of spring. Dancers genuflect towards the light as if awakening from sleep. Later, a single dancer, nymph-like, is brought to awakening by a huge Chinese dragon-style shaman. The athleticism on display is remarkable.

These opening scenes also give us an early introduction to the astonishing affordance of this visual design (no surprise, given it comes courtesy of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Tim Yip) as the enormous convex disc backing onto the stage rises and falls. This fantastic piece of engineering and design, thanks to exemplary lighting (Fabiana Piccioli) and clever use of projections (Tobias Gremmler), variously calls to mind a pool, a cloud, the red sun of the Chinese flag and a Tibetan singing bowl. It’s hypnotic.

And lighting is artful throughout. A darkened but neon-lit scene is especially entrancing, as fluid group movement and fluorescent costumes variously transform the dancers into flowers, fields of grass and frenzied dryads. Pagan wildness is shot through the piece, and the solitary monk, never leaving the stage, continues to arrange and rearrange the piles of golden Chinese characters as if seeking to restore order. His work is smashed in scenes of wild dancing, but as we leave the auditorium he remains, silently arranging the characters, and the closing scene offers a promise of peace as our human sacrifice is reborn. This moment is truly a thing of beauty, as the dancer flows mercurially around the disc. Inspired staging ensures that she is as luminous as a Pepper’s ghost before she descends into a final serene meditation.

The astonishing staging and performances on display here ensure that this production is spectacle as much as it is dance, and the glorious, stylised sketches of now alien rituals keep the audience spellbound.

Yang Liping’s Rite of Spring will be touring to Edinburgh International Festival this summer, 22-24 August 2019.

Underbelly Festival Southbank

Reviewed – 31st May 2019

★★★★

“it’s impossible not to gasp and coo at the acts of physical skill on display”

We’ve all been there, hearing the airport announcer warn of delays and, knowing you’ll be there for a while, settle in for some intensive diablo-ing to pass the time. No? Must be just FLIP Fabrique then.

For all these small flaws, it’s impossible not to gasp and coo at the acts of physical skill on display. I found myself hand on mouth then laughing aloud at times – and for an evening of circus, can you ask for more?

Reviewed by Abi Davies

Photography courtesy FLIP Fabrique

Transit

Underbelly Festival Southbank until 7th July

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed – 9th May 2019

★★★★★

“the glorious, stylised sketches of now alien rituals keep the audience spellbound”

The astonishing staging and performances on display here ensure that this production is spectacle as much as it is dance, and the glorious, stylised sketches of now alien rituals keep the audience spellbound.

Yang Liping’s Rite of Spring will be touring to Edinburgh International Festival this summer, 22-24 August 2019.

Reviewed by Abi Davies

Photography by Li Yijan

Rite of Spring

Sadler’s Wells Theatre until 11th May

Previously reviewed at this venue: