Blackpool Tower Circus, aged five, and I was terrified… the
magnificent men and women on the flying trapeze were swooping high over our
heads and all I could think was that, without a safety net, they could die in
front of us.
There’s always been a mortal fascination with circus
performance, not just the risks they take but also the amount of their lives
they have to devote to moving their art towards the limits of human possibility.
I don’t say that lightly and when Kate McWilliam performs 54 cartwheels inside
of a minute, she may be 11 off equalling the world record but it’s humbling all
the same; how many hours, weeks, years have gone into that amazing minute?
This is circus but it also comes with a story both real and
imagined… like a Morecambe and Wise sketch, or Miranda, there’s the artifice of
the troop putting on a show but there’s also a deeper narrative, one based on
the women’s own career and their treatment.
Kate tells us about her role in a TV show in which she and
others trained celebrities to do circus tricks yet, in spite of the fact that
she has a degree in the circus arts and is a specialist in some of the most physically
challenging of the disciplines, she and other women were often reduced to more
decorative displays while the men were allowed to tumble; she takes a glance at
the audience and sets of on three perfectly executed tumbles, power and grace
combined with acting: these movements carrying disappointment, frustration and an
anger that cuts short any frills…
The men would be supportive always telling her she was good
but, more often than that, saying that she was good “for a girl”.
Kate McWilliam, Michelle Ross and a flying Francesca Hyde (Photos courtesy of Chris Reynolds) |
Such an idea, in close proximity to these immensely
accomplished and brave, women, is risible. Camille Toyer is a master of the cyr
wheel a heavy metal ring that is some two metres in diameter. Kate narrates as
Camille shows what she can do and whilst there’s a joke about the dangers, as
they are both “professionals”, the cyr is heavy and can do a lot of damage.
Where Camille to lose concentration and allow the wheel to run over her toes
they would all break, at the other end the wheel could knock her out or worse whilst,
for more difficult motions, it could finish her career as well as taking out
the front row of the Soho Theatre.
Yet Camille is literally breath-taking
in the wheel, spinning perfect slow circles and then speeding up as she turns
360 degrees first vertically and then, incredibly, almost horizontally.
There’s a running joke about Alice Gilmartin who keeps on
trying to introduce the show in the manner of one of Eric and Ernie’s guests,
the other’s gently take the mickey but, of course, she has a supernatural
flexibility and strength that eventually smacks our gobs.
Her chief tormentors are occasional accordion player, Francesca
Hyde and Michelle Ross who’s comic timing and impish grin put me in mind of
Alan Cummings (a good thing!). The two have an epic stand-off trying to outlast
the other one leg on the ground and the other in the air before they tow produce
their party tricks, Michelle taking her though her high-wire act and Francesca
spinning furiously supported only by her hair from a rope above the stage.
All have different characters and when they sit down in a
line and eat their donuts in silence staring out at the audience it’s hard not
to feel intimidated… there’s few people tougher than a circus artist and what
are we looking at anyway… pal!?
Kate McWilliam, Michelle Ross, Francesca Hyde Camille Toyer and Alice Gilmartin, |
They’re testing us and sustaining a good-natured rapport with
the watchers in much the same way as a great stand-up comic – yes, they act but
the physical routines are personal statements and they demand our respect. Just
as I rooted for those trapeze artists in Blackpool so I felt for the team
tonight.
As Ellie Dubois who devised the show says, “we made this show before the #MeToo movement,
but the world has been slow to catch up and it feels even more important and
relevant than ever.” The moment of pure show-girls has passed and you can’t
not look to your own attitudes in watching this “no show”. Whatever the
politics, what emerges is a portrait of five hard working and consummately professional
women.
No Show runs,
jumps, spins and tumbles until Saturday 9th February 2019, there’s nothing like
it in
London right now and I urge you to spin your way as fast as you can to
buy a ticket.
Ithankyou Theatre rating: **** A perfectly-poignant mix
of performance art: philosophical circus that lifts you up and makes you think
as you marvel at the potential of applied human dedication. Also, very, very
funny too!
Great review, totally gets it! So well deserved by these amazing women 🙂 x
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! I'm going to have to go and see it again I think!! Best, Paul
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