Cirque Alfonse’s Barbu. Image via Sydney Opera House.
For Cirque Alfonse’s show Barbu, the Studio Theatre at the Sydney Opera House has been set up with a cat walk running out into the midst of the audience with a small circular stage at the end of it, with a bar at the back of the space that stays open for the duration of the show. This configuration gives the sense of informality and fun of a spiegeltent, and creates a wonderful late night venue for cabaret and circus – perfect for this show from this Quebec-based circus.
Cirque Alfonse, founded in 2005, comes from Saint-Alfonse-Rodriquez in Quebec. The company has set out to draw on their own tradition of folk music and folk arts and meld them with circus. The music for the show is sensational. It draws on the folk music of the region and infuses it with punk in a sound reminiscent of the Pogues but with its own unique very Quebec flavour. Josianne Laporte, David Simard, and André Gagné are superb musicians with a particular sensitivity that enables them to play perfectly with circus, responding in real time to the events as they unfold on stage in front of them.
And unfolding around them in Barbu is a night of zany performance. It starts with the cast whizzing down the catwalk on rollerskates and a rollerskate partnering sequence with one of the girls spinning at high velocity around her rollerskating partner whilst suspended by a strap round her the head, and the show ends with one of the male performers running stark naked up the catwalk into the darkness.
In between we see juggling with a full size metal beer keg; a person wearing a disco ball costume spinning inside a car wheel; acrobatics which include a section from the two female circus artists who begin by striding round the ring posing and showing off their muscles like body builders and then go on to balance and lift each other in an impressive display of strength whilst having a whip cracked at them by the female drummer; bizarre antics with a gerbil; and a disappearing woman magic section. When the disappearing woman reappears she is bare-breasted with pink tassels covering her nipples. She is also sporting a full beard.
Barbu is bizarre, wacky and a little bit wild. An evening of anarchic fun!
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Barbu
Circus Artists:
Jean-Philippe Cuerrier, Antoine Carabinier Lépine, Jonathan Casaubon, Geneviève Gauthier, Lucas Jolly, Geneviève Morin, Francis Roberge, Milette Jolly
Musicians: Josianne Laporte, David Simard , André Gagné
Director: Alain Francoeur
Artistic Directors: Antoine Carabinier Lépine, Julie Carabinier Lépine
Musical Composers: André Gagné and David Simard
Video Editing: Frédéric Barrette
Lighting Design: Nicolas Descôteaux
Sound Technician: Lionnel Dechamps Lighting Technician: Jean-Louis ”Jello” Robert
Technical Director: Hugo Hamel
Acrobatic Equipment Design: Alain Carabinier
Makeup: Ruth Joyal
Hair Stylist: Kathy Maguire
Costumes: Lucien Berneche
Disco Ball Costume: Manon Desmarais
Sydney Festival
Sydney Opera House
Wed 8 Feb 2017 – Sat 4 Mar 2017
