A show that leaves you pretty breathless from the start
The show opens proper with Ashley Carr’s beleaguered office worker snowed under with stacks of paperwork in a grey, massive city straight out of Lang’s Metropolis or Gilliam’s Brazil. His small acts of rebellion against the monotony quickly escalate and infect the other grey drones eventually bursting out into a phenomenal fusion of circus and dance.
The sound design and the video projection are incorporated perfectly with Dave St-Pierre’s choreography which is often frenetic with so much going on that I occasionally find myself unsure where to focus my attention as so many delightful things are happening at once.
Tumbling and acrobatics blend seamlessly into Nora Zoller performing possibly the most beautiful Cyr Wheel routine I have ever seen before some classic slapstick segues into a spectacular juggling section with the entire cast making the art of throwing clubs look both effortless and impossible. A Chinese Pole double act and group German Wheel performance bring gasps and squeals before we charge toward the finale via rope and some excellent diabolo skills from Arata Urawa.
The teeterboard finale is hugely entertaining but perhaps not quite as spectacular as some of the routines that have come before but it’s a high-energy ending to a show that leaves you pretty breathless from the start. Cirque Eloize have long established themselves as one of the best contemporary circus companies out there and Cirkopolis is another triumph.
