Cirque Eloize; Cirkopolis
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
With so many circus performance companies springing up that even these Canadian masters of the art have to work hard to keep one step ahead of the pack.
Having just about been exhausted the limits of physical ability and made the ability to juggle, spin, leap etc almost common place if not a bit dull, it is no wonder circus has linked up with theatre and increasingly dance to take this genre onto another plane; both literally and artistically. Note for example the latest round of Coreo Cymru commissions submissions inviting applications from circus skills combined with theatre and a strong dance element.
So in the quest for a new approach, or at least a new theme for the craft, co-directors of Cirkopolis Jeannot Painchaud and Dave St-Pierre have taken the world of a blinkered mechanised soulless world as the framework for a story of liberation through joy and movement to display the wonderful athleticism and artistry of the stars, whether that be acrobatics, juggling, aerial work or stylised dance.
The show opens with a clerk (Ashley Carr) mindless stamping piles of documents as the backdrop remind us of the 1927 film, Metropolis with its cogs, grey mechanisation, and submersion of the individual to the machine.
The world is transformed by the men and women of the troupe who, while also sporting uniform grey, start to rebel, introduce charm, romance, flirtation, a bit of lust, humour and also some colour into this world.
Our clerk is taken away like some character in a Romantic ballet into a new world of contrast with the controlling, stultifying reality. This is a world of lithe, fit and graceful women, strong, muscular and equally elegant men, who defy convention (and gravity) with their mastery of the circus skills.
Vital to all of this is the clever use of video with the menacing backdrop of industrial process ebbing back and forth, while in the foreground free spirits, such as the women in red, spinning on the Cyr Wheel, or the dextrous hunks effortlessly rotating the German Wheel.
All the while the clerk tries out little bits of the routines as he tries to break out, to impress those women who swoon over one muscle man in particular, and finds a taste of romance when the dress he dances with on a clothes rail transforms into one of the beautiful women performers.
I do wonder, however, why the women have to be presented in body-gripping swim suits whereas the men rarely even take their shirts off – and only then for the women to swoon over.
After the break the pace heats up with quite remarkable action of the Chinese Pole, breath-taking movements, intricate interactions and some divertissement allowing individuals to show off their expertise.
As you would expect the finale is all leaps and bounds, flying through the air, all the cast letting us know just how incredibly skilled and powerful they are, until we reach a denouement as those desk and piles of paper reappear.
So how do we end this light narrative? Well make those sheets of paper multicoloured rather than drab white and throw them into the air in a glorious rainbow of freedom from conformity and control.
This is not a show that needs to be analysed as a straight piece of narrative theatre or dance, the richness of the movement, the beauty of the bodies, the personalities of the performers, are all thoroughly enjoyable in isolation of any plot device. But it does all hold together and allows for the introduction of the humour which is very gentle and avoids the frequent clown-like antics in such shows.
Okay so the story line is a bit of clichéd but who cares when you have artistry and skill, with exquisite recorded song and music, engrossing acting and video interplay and total immersion?
Wales Millennium Centre until April 12.