Brighton Year-Round 2024
Sabotage
NoFit State Circus
Genre: Circus
Venue: Brighton Dome at The Level
Festival: Brighton Year-Round
Low Down
You know circus is working when the audience spontaneously cheers the riggers. Teeming with invention and cinematic in scope, if NoFit pitch their tent in your town go but beware; you may want to run away and join this circus.
Note that nothing in SABOTAGE makes it unsuitable for children, but it was not made specifically for them.
In Brighton until 1 September 2024.
Review
If tumbling though hoops, standing one-legged on another person’s head, or twirling by your hair 30 feet above the ground were Olympic sports, the NoFit troupe would be high-fiving on the trophy podium non stop.
This though, is circus, where unity and care replace competition. It’s an arena for sharing talent with each other and an audience, and the hugely accomplished company brings verve, energy and plenty of thrills to the big top.
Billed as a Brighton Festival ‘extra’ (outside of the May festival dates) the circus has pitched its wagons on The Level, a central green space with skate park, kids playground and random drinkers. Actually it arrived in about six pantechnicons. Now a tight international touring outfit, NoFit was founded in 1986 by five friends in Cardiff and largely reinvigorated circus as a career for young people and as a more nuanced, socially engaged artform. Wales should be very proud.
There’s more than a touch of Fellini in director Firenza Guidi’s vivid and theatrical setting, which opens with the cast establishing their characters, army fatigues, dun-coloured dresses, moody low light. Four large rigging columns dominate the space which bustles with movement and things on wheels – carts, bikes, body-boards, feet.
Atmospheric lighting draws focus where it’s needed and the costumes are 1950’s cute for a beach scene, striking black net for drama, continuously adding richness to the stage picture. There’s invention and surprise throughout. Credit to the designers please; it’s what websites are for.
The ensemble work gives way to spectacular solo pieces; whether on trapeze, suspended by hair (Tara Talland) or twirling hoops, the performers match personality with skills that totally wow the audience. A parade of papier-mache heads of world leaders (does Rishi Sunak count as one?) is pure La Strada.
Yes, there are hints at the darker, gritty elements of modern life: riot shields, a tricycle ambulance. Projected imagery of an armoured truck disintegrating, becoming first a transport container, then water, clearly hints at the refugee crisis and is perhaps too little used. Likewise the coat of coats that unfurls down the height of the space. These subtle moments of intimate duets, or the poignant song Do You Know Where You Come From need longer to settle. The excellent on-stage trio, often supplemented by the multi-talented cast, provides a supportive narrative in Toby Mottershead’s songs and music, beautifully integrated into the choreography of the show. Mixing voices and accents from across Europe, it has hints of Howe Gelb and a lovely blend of folk traditions. Some lyrics get lost in the lofty tent acoustic. There’s surely scope for a soundtrack album.
Whether it’s a giant circular frame swinging performers to the rafters, ridiculously clever balances and somersaults on a bouncy rope (Bruno Toso, bringing rock-star charisma), or Gracie Marshall flipping hoops with her toes, the company is superb and the audience really, really wants to let them know it. To have sabotage, you need saboteurs, but that’s not what’s on display here. It’s supreme teamwork that celebrates what humans can do. You know circus is working when the audience spontaneously cheers the riggers; gold medals for all.
