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Showing posts with the label Groupe Bekkrell

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Wine time: The Frogs - Southwark Playhouse

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For a show called The Frogs, there isn’t much amphibian activity in the piece. But being a show with music by Stephen Sondheim, you could be mistaken for thinking it’s a critical theatrical piece. But like Sondheim’s final musical playing at the National Theatre, while it may not be a musical that fills you with provocative thoughts, it’s a fast-paced romp through hell and back to save the world for the sake of arts. With rousing choruses, thrilling choreography and plenty of cheap laughs, what more can you want from the theatre? It’s currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough) . There isn’t much to the plot, except that Dionysus (Dan Buckley), disillusioned by the state of a divided world, and his sidekick and slave, Xanthias (Kevin McHale), cross the river Styx to the underworld to find a great writer who they can return to the world to teach the world about life. He has his mind set on bringing back George Bernard Shaw until he hears the poetry of Shakespeare.  This v...
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Miss Atomic Bomb: The Bekkrell Effect @RoundhouseLDN #CircusFest

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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 b...
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