Under the Dark Moon is culminating performance of the Bristol Circus Festival, which was curated by the Invisible Circus themselves and has seen a collection of International circus, promenade performance, side show entertainment and live music, presented at the Creative Common over the last seven weeks.
The show presented some breath-taking performances, particularly the Chinese pole routine. This involves walking up an enormous pole and periodically falling off, without smashing onto the floor, all with grace, poise and deep in character. Wow! The slack line performance was clearly an accomplishment and the only disappointment I could note, is that he didn't seem receive as much applause as his female counterparts. Perhaps because we were so ensconced in his portrayal of being lonely and misunderstood, that there was not as obvious a climax moment, to trigger an aural response. Which raises some interesting thoughts, but let me just say his core muscles must be intense.
The show was charming, strange and haunting in gratifying proportions. The big top had been transformed into a veiled white paradise, the colour theming worked beautifully as did the costume and styling.
Under the Dark Moon was polished and really gave the full package to sell out audiences, over five consecutive nights. All inspired by the aesthetic of 1930s German expressionism.
The narrative followed that of a fairy tale genre, adorned with a little spooky madness and asylum patient-esqe costumes and props to give just enough edge, whilst maintaining a fragile beauty. The plot is an expression of the performers' battle between their 'super-human' representation of themselves, versus the emotional person with human flaws. Which is an interesting subject matter, coming up in conversations with other circus professionals more and more.
A live musical score from The Carny Villains really set off the show, with some fascinating hand-crafted sound effects, which I shan't give away! The interaction between the musicians and with the physical performances was a nice touch.
I was also really taken with the way that the crew performing the counter balance for the artists on stage, were just about visible. This which I think gives the performance a sort of grass roots authenticity, without over-playing it.
I really enjoyed the show, the production was excellent. A closing speech revealed that the festival had been quite a hefty challenge and that it is unknown at this stage what the future will hold for the pop-up venue at the Creative Common. It has been a delightful place to visit, near to Temple Meads and felt nothing like the car park it sits upon. With a cafe, a bar, pop-up table tennis, plants, ever increasing installation art and kids' activities at the weekends. It would be a pleasure to see it grow and evolve. It would be great to see increased interaction with the wider community. It's a perfect location to support performance based tourism in Bristol, as well as a leap pad for exporting more physical arts out of the city, one of the most prolific in Europe in terms of producing circus. Well done so far to the team.
Watch this space for developments and opportunities. I will follow the few stages of progress for the Invisible Circus with interest. As well of course, as the pulse of all Bristol's circus and live events.
