Brighton Year-Round 2025
Heka
Gandini Juggling
Genre: Circus, Comedic, Dance, Magic
Venue: Brighton Dome
Festival: Brighton Year-Round
Low Down
This latest piece from Gandini Juggling, originators of ‘new circus’ exalts the magician’s skill.
The show opens in classic close-up magic style: a long table, a black suited performer, a red thread. Yu-Hsien Wu, precise in action, fluid of body, tricks the eye as extra limbs augment her own, hands weave across the table, balls appear and disappear.
Directed by Sean Gandini, performed by Kati Ylä-Hokkala, Kate Boschetti, Tedros Girmaye, Doreen Grossman, Jose Triguero, Yu-Hsien Wu
Magic consultants: Kalle Nio, Yann Frisch
Levitations, props and philosophy: Sakari Männistö
Review
Given that he created Gandini Juggling in 1991, we can forgive Sean Gandini a bit of grand-standing in this latest exploration of what juggling as a form can be. He is ring-master and master magician, orchestrating a team of supremely skilled ‘assistants’ to investigate the philosophy of magic and misdirection. One of the guiding lights here is Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, whose teasing line “Say what you don’t do. Do what you don’t say” threads through the piece.
Heka, named after the Ancient Egyptian god of magic, opens in classic close-up magic style: a long table, a black suited performer, a red thread. Yu-Hsien Wu, precise in action, fluid of body, tricks the eye as extra limbs augment her own, hands weave across the table, balls appear and disappear. From this instantly bewitching scene, inspired by French magician Yann Frisch, the show moves to play with other magic forms. Yes there are plenty of balls juggled, produced and vanished with astonishing sleight of hand, but also a take on the interlocking rings, here mysteriously flying in space. We know they’re attached by strings but suspend (sorry) our disbelief.
There’s warm interaction between the seven-strong troupe, stylish in black kilts with a red flash and sock suspenders in Georgina Spencer’s cleverly non-gendered costumes. All are experts at these tricksy, intricate actions and perform with seemingly casual flair whilst the audience holds its breath in wonder. With echoes of Meredith Monk in its blend of voice and found sounds, Andy Cowton’s beautiful soundtrack always adds to the scene; a hint of a Bridgerton-era gavotte here, the metallic clink of a Newton’s Cradle there. Red-suited Sean Gandini narrates some scenes, quoting Houdin “only the effect matters”, telling tall stories and a potted history of magic. He joins the larger set pieces where the company get their little balls higher and higher against the reflective ribboned curtain, Guy Hoare’s lighting design bouncing and fragmenting our vision.
Whilst the legacy of Pina Bausch (and more recently Jonathan Burrows) has long been evident in Gandini’s choreography of hands and limbs, here evoking the Nelken Line at one point, Heka doesn’t send an arrow to the heart the way that Bausch’s work does. It’s consistently arresting to watch, like all good circus, but despite the direct address to the audience, somehow doesn’t fully connect. The most moving section, perhaps oddly, is a screwball dance with pairs of performers co-joined in stripey tights, funny and beautifully realised.
The finale is a clever reveal that completes a circle. A high recommend for a company that has managed to keep producing top quality mid-scale, audience-delighting shows for 34 years, a magic trick itself.
