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You can’t stop the boats: Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea @ParkTheatre

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Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea by Italian playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi and translated by Marco Young, has made a topical return to London at the Park Theatre after playing earlier this summer at the Seven Dials Playhouse. In a week when leaders and leaders in waiting were talking about illegal immigration, it seemed like a topical choice . It also has one hell of an evocative title. The piece opens with Adriano Celantano’s Prisencolinensinainciusol , which sets the scene for what we are about to see. After all, a song about communication barriers seems perfect for a play about people trafficking and illegal immigration. One side doesn’t understand why they happen, and the other still comes regardless of the latest government announcement / slogan .  However, the twist here is that the crossing is undertaken the other way. People are fleeing Europe instead of escaping war or poverty in Africa or the Middle East. It’s set sometime in the not-too-distant future. There is a crisis causing p

Miss Atomic Bomb: The Bekkrell Effect @RoundhouseLDN #CircusFest

French circus troupe Groupe Bekkrell bring their show to the Camden Roundhouse, The Bekkrell Effect. It’s part of CircusFest 2018, which is celebrating 250 years since the invention of the modern circus. Using the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel, it’s an explosion of movement, working together and apart. They’ve created a world where things decay and disintegrate, including the set...

The strength of the piece comes from the unique staging. It starts off as a bare stage with a few things disassembled. There are cables, strings, ropes, boards.

Performers Fanny Alvarez, Sarah Cosset, Océane Pelpel and Fanny Sintés undertake rope, Chinese mast, tightrope and tumbling. And they bring all the stage props toghether while performing. Either together or alone.

Accompanied by a pulsating soundtrack or the performers own grunts, it’s both funny and fascinating.

And they manage to produce some stunning scenes, including for the finale where everything seems to be teetering on the brink.

But there’s something alienating and uninspired about the way the festival has chosen to present acts at the Roundhouse. It’s like they’re determined to keep the audience as far away from the performers. Maybe it was for health and safety grounds given how crazy this act is. But the raked seating makes it harder for the peformers to convey the excitement of their work. And it gives the audience incentive to leave before the end of the show.

Take your opera glasses, but The Bekkrell Effect is at Camden Roundhouse until 22 April. Check their website for future dates.

While most of the other events part of CircusFest 2018 have concluded, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Friday Late on 27 April will be devoted to the art form.

⭐️⭐️⭐️


Photos by Massao Mascaro

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