Featured Post

Death becomes her: A Brief List Of Everyone Who Died @finborough

Image
For a natural process, death is not a topic that comes up naturally for people. We ask how people are doing but expect the response to be “I’m great”, not “I’m not dead yet”. And so for the main character in A Brief List of Everyone Who Died, Graciela has a death issue. Starting with when she was five and found out only after the matter that her parents had her beloved dog euthanised. So Graciela decides that nobody she loves will die from then on. And so this piece becomes a fruitless attempt at how she spends her life trying to avoid death while it is all around her. It’s currently having its world premiere  at the Finborough Theatre . As the play title suggests, it is a brief list of life moments where death and life intervene for the main character, from the passing of relatives, cancer, suicides, accidents and the loss of parents. Playwright Jacob Marx Rice plots the critical moments of the lives of these characters through their passing or the passing of those around them. Howeve

Flipping memories: Catch Me @FlipFabriQue @UnderbellyFest


It's the start of summer. The weather's hot and the Underbelly Festival at the South Bank Centre is opening with its usual eclectic mix of circus acts, comedy and cabaret. And Flip FabriQue's Catch Me fits this bill well.

There is beauty and fluidity in the performances. The premise is that ten years later a bunch of friends reunite for another weekend at a cottage together. They play. They have fun. And they do strange and unusual things with straps, trampolines and diablos.




Quebec-based Flip FabriQue brings together circus artists to tell stories drawn from their own experiences. With a backdrop of a cottage the acrobat routines evoke memories of the past and a spirit of playfulness.

A squeaking Bruno Gagnon is soon flipping through the air. Hugo Ouellet Côté on straps is looking at a photobook. Camila Comin and Yann Leblanc soon become intertwined on a Cyr Wheel. It's amazing to watch.



Underbelly is continuing with its reputation for bringing the best circus acts to the South Bank summer. And this had me recalling past years with Circa and Gravity and Other Myths.

Perhaps those productions were a little sharper and focused. Not every scene works here which makes the show drag at times.

There is an interlude in sleeping bags that seems out of place. Another segment with exercise balls and Barry Manilow's Copacobana seemed less impressive. It's probably not a good idea to use that as a backing track. It's too much of a distraction. Either half the audience want to sing along while the other half want to cover their ears.

Still it's hard not to like a show which features an ice-lolly eating competition and duelling diablos (not the sexy one's we're used to). There is also some incredible high energy trampolining to close the evening.

Directed by Olivier Normand, Flip FabriQue: Catch Me is at the Underbelly Festival at the South Bank Centre until 9 July.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎



Photos by Richard Davenport.








Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Ramin Karimloo: the unstoppable beast