Brighton Year-Round 2026
A Glimmer Daze Gambit
Revel Puck Circus
Genre: Acrobatics, Aerial Theatre, Children's Theatre, Circus, Clown, Comedic
Venue: Revel Puck Circus
Festival: Brighton Year-Round
Low Down
If the title seems a little baffling, A Glimmer Daze Gambit the show certainly isn’t. With some stand out acts, lots of Puckish charm and great energy, it’s a joyful couple of hours for all ages.
Brighton Victoria Gardens until 6 September
Photo by Craig Sugden
Review
Revel Puck bring sunny vibes, laughs and thrills in their sparkly new show, prettily pitched on Brighton’s Victoria Gardens.
Magic is afoot the minute you enter the Big Top; the scale is just right, music not too loud, the lighting warm. The company, in sporty, earthy coloured stripes, is busy on stage. There are some bits of circus apparatus on the ground, and rigging above. Who, you wonder, will do what, on what?
Brighton born Luke Hallgarten (writer and director) plays a clown looking for a circus home. He’s led, by a red nose of ever increasing dimensions, through a series of challenges and provides the through-line of a show about community and belonging.
Opening the acrobatics in fine style, Emily Lannigan and Sebastian Swain are perfectly matched in grace and power on Teeterboard. ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’ soundtracks a phenomenal Icarian Chair act. That’s an angled chair that allows one person to balance, throw and catch another on their feet. Sounds clunky but is fluid and astounding performed here by Seyfu Tesfay & Tariku Abu Ayele.
It proves the ingenuity and wit of Revel Puck that a familiar theatre trope, a pile of old-style suitcases, is not used as furniture but instead reveal sounds, from trombone and burps to a timely tribute to Dolly Parton. The two women on the tech desk (from an admirably female led crew) act along with the music, getting us all in the groove.
Aerial spectacle comes from Imani Vital on straps, smiling her way through complex maneuvers at height and Beretta Duo on cradle. A timely song lyric plays ‘I won’t let you down’ and trust is certainly the key to these relationships. It’s an international family dependent on each other for their lives. Never more so than in Duo Royals slightly terrifying roller skate act; gymnastics at speed, on a small rotating platform, on wheels. Astonishing.
Our clown guide is building confidence, juggling whatever is thrown to him, playing to the crowd. He invites three men and a boy from the audience and turns them into a band with bells, drum, cymbal and triangle. He cycles a mini bike through a ring of fire. Is it enough to get him in? There’s no real jeopardy in this kind-hearted story, despite the ooh’s and aah’s dutifully exclaimed at his sad face.
Switching between slow, elemental acts and boisterous fun keeps it nicely paced, and the raising of a central platform for a double tiered hoop act is a strong change of focus. Jess Brigham’s lighting design gets especially vivid here, enveloping the whole company in blues and pinks.
99 Red Balloons is the perfect tune for Revel Puck’s signature dish, the whole troupe on a wobble board atop a giant red ball. It’s a joyful moment from a totally joyful show by this highly inventive, super skilled company. The clown fulfils all our dreams of joining the circus – with Revel Puck he’s made the perfect choice.
