Who needs Paris, Monaco or New York? London has plenty enough circus to keep you in thrills through the January chills…
Lisa Angberg in NoFit State’s 2013 production of Noodles, which comes to London International Mime Festival this year in a new revamped version
2015 is off to a racing start, but lets not forget the final chances we have to see out the festive season with circus style. La Soirée is continuing at the Southbank until 11th, and Canadian Cirque Alfonse present Timber! at the Brighton Dome from 2nd-4th before hoisting their lumberjack antics out to Australia.
The UK’s permanent circus centres also have a few days left of holiday magic, with Blackpool Tower Circus‘ Aladdin’s Winto Panto running until 18th, and Great Yarmouth Hippodrome‘s Christmas Spectacular and Water Show until 11th.
Opening up at the Royal Albert Hall on 7th is the annually anticipated visit from Cirque Du Soleil, who present Kooza until 8th February. The show is a return to the origins of the Canadian super-circus, with a focus on the traditions of clowning and acrobatics, based in a zany world of self-discovery.
Best of all, is the ever exciting London International Mime Festival, which has a significant proportion of circus-based work in this year’s programme. Running from 8th-31st, the festival hosts a healthy contingent of British artists, including winners of the inaugural Jacksons Lane Total Theatre Award for Circus Theatre, Barely Methodical Troupe, with Bromance (8-10th). Knights of the Invisible present Black Regent (12-13th), the World Premiere of 4 X 4 – Gandini Juggling’s collaboration with classically trained ballet dancers – runs from 13-15th, Mat Ricardo is the consumate gentleman juggler in Showman (19th-21st), and NoFit State Circus offer a reshaped version of their 2013 Edinburgh Fringe show Noodles (27th-31st).
From further afield come Circus Ronaldo of Belgium, with neo-vaudeville styled Amortale (16-18th), French companies Lonely Circus and Oktobre – who offer the balancing act of FALL/FELL/FALLEN (10-11th) and the New Magic infused Oktobre (23rd-25th) respectively – and New Zealander Thomas Monckton in solo clown extravaganza The Pianist (14-18th), the Total Theatre Award nominated collaboration with Circo Aereo.
Circo Aereo, from Finland, also present a series of four short films as part of the festival, each dedicated to a single circus discipline, and following the acrobats, jugglers and fire performers to give a perspective very different from live performance. The films will be screened at Jacksons Lane on 30th-31st January and entrance is free – happy new year!
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