★★★★☆
Roll up! Roll up! This vibrant circus experience brings its essence of Africa to Manchester, and it’s only here for a short time so latch on to an aerial and swing on over to Factory International!
In all seriousness, having never seen a circus show before, I was rather nervous about how the show would flow. However, Kalabanté Productions’ Afrique en Cirque introduced the audience to an everyday life in Guinea, inserting comedic sections in between acrobatic segments and keeping the audience lively and engaged in the meantime.
Although relaxed shows can be distracting, I felt it really added to the sense of community they were bringing with their interactions with the audience, whether it be jokes, encouraging clapping and dancing, or a pantomime like call-back whenever a key phrase is spoken.
The show opened to this domestic lifestyle, with people walking in and out and talking before drums were placed in the centre and clouds of dust erupted from them as they were played by dancing drummers – a gripping start to say the least.
Later acts included juggling, with purposeful mistakes dotted here and there for humour, a gorgeous hula-hoop segment where the acrobat seemed to glide effortlessly with the hoop as though they were one, extending fishing rods with lights across the audience in a fascinating dark scene, and two females in cheetah outfits who had contagiously enthusiastic smiles and somehow merged their bodies together into a knot or miraculously leaped into gravity defying pyramids or onto people’s shoulders, heads, or hands.
There was an uproar of laughter when a sudden contrast hit the stage… Men in builder’s hard-hats, bare-chested, started dancing across the stage, earning many cheers from the audience in this Magic Mike-like segment. Next thing you know, they use their drums and boards to create scaffolding before doing a seemingly impossible pyramid atop the unsteady structure.
Each acrobat could leap onto another, purposely fall from great heights and perform effortless rolls to add finesse, and play African instruments with the rest of the on-stage band. It was beyond belief how fun and energetic the performance was.
While there were a few lulls here and there between the action, each new act topped the last as the stakes got higher (along with their poses)!
My favourite act had to be the contortionist’s performance after he was fished from a lake. He fully embodied the hectic flopping of a fish before completely transforming in a mesmerising performance where his bones seemed to dissolve into jelly as each joint and pose flowed smoothly into the next.
There’s always something about a talented contortionist that gets people astounded yet simultaneously horrified and squeamish as bodies bend in ways you never believed they could.
The costumes and set design were simple yet elegant and vibrant with an infusion of Guinean culture, much-like the rest of the performance and the journey it takes you on. It truly puts Africa and the art of story-telling at its centre with its alternation between tales of domestic life and high-flying acrobatics. Their sheer passion for pleasing the audience, amazing personalities, jaw-dropping spectacles, and gorgeous musical infusions were simply stunning..
Afrique en Cirque runs at Aviva Studios – Factory International until November 15.
Photo: © Peter Graham
JADAR 