Tumble Circus juggles a serious tale with traditional circus skills. It's a heady mix, writes Catherine Foley
There is a strong whiff of grease paint in the air this summer. Having performed at Dublin's Diversions Festival in July, and at Waterford's Spraoi Festival last week, Tumble Circus, a group of travelling acrobats, will also be enthralling audiences at the Rose of Tralee Festival later this month.
During their show, the tumblers grimace, smile, strut, snarl and preen in comic exaggerated expressions. They whirl in the air, hang from ropes, fall over, play the accordion, balance on each other's heads, pirouette from sheaths of hanging red silk and fly through the air high on a trapeze swing. They provide thrills, spills and heart-stopping acrobatics.
"Everyone can appreciate the skills and kids love the silly stuff," says Tumble Circus co-founder and Dubliner, Ken Fanning. "We try to do a lot of comedy and clown stuff too". The comic situations in his new circus show, which is called Tóin Thar Cheann, come from true stories. "All the characters are from ourselves. We just enhance it," he explains. Tumble Circus, which was formed in 1998 by Fanning and Tina Segner, who is from Lund in Sweden, has toured throughout the US, Australia and continental Europe since then.
The story they tell is about the outsider, explains Fanning. One bitter-sweet aerial image in Tóin Thar Cheann involves a young woman, played by Flora Herberick from Bavaria, who seems lost as she walks in circles through the air with her suitcase. Even as she is pulled high into the air, she falls upside down. There are shrieks of laughter when she tries to pull her dress down over her bloomers.
Fanning explains that the initial image of this wandering girl with a suitcase was inspired by stories of refugees and travellers. "We are very much outsiders," he says.
"We are looked on as second-class citizens. Street performers are frowned upon." Being a professional tumbler "is not a normal thing to do," he says, recalling being hassled when he performed on the streets of Dublin.
And yet, he says, "It's the best job in the world. We've just come back from a three-month tour of Australia. I feel more vital and alive now at 32 than I did when I was 18. I reckon we could be doing this into our 50s," he says, relishing the idea.
Young children, who attended the opening performance of their new show in Temple Bar earlier in the summer, loved the playful, comic elements as well as the slapstick knockabouts, but some of the five- and six-year-olds found the cross, swarthy character played by Dublin man, Hillas Smith, a tiny bit threatening. One little girl ran over to her mother in case he came too close. There was no terror, just a little sense of unease and that tone seemed to make the show all the more powerful. The circus should bring out loads of different feelings, explains Fanning.
"I liked it to have a bit of a dark edge because our lives do," says Derek Ives, director of Tóin Thar Cheann. "There are some beautiful moments," he says. "To try to tell a narrative story with circus skill is pretty tricky, but we try and build relationships between the characters." Watching the show were some of the organisers of the 29th European Juggling Convention, which was held in Ireland for the first time last month at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, Co Cork, attracting 2,500 delegates from 40 countries.
Members of Tumble Circus twirl, mime and perform to a mix of different sounds ranging from Las Vegas 1950s striptease tracks to Swedish folk music and songs from "a weird Australian jazz dude".
Hillas Smith, who is part of the Tóin Thar Cheann show, doesn't wonder where his interest and love of circus performance came from. He says he was always "a bit of a renegade" in his life. He trains now with Tumble Circus at its base in the Belfast Community Circus on Gordon Street in the Cathedral Quarter of the city. Fanning recalls years of watching television at home in Balbriggan, Co Dublin. He watched Spiderman in particular, he says.
Flora Herberich did sports acrobatics for 10 years. As for Tina Segner, who also holds the title of All-Ireland Novice Board Diving Champion 2005, she grew up horse-riding and diving.
"We are playing with different relationships on stage," adds Segner.
"The whole show is an allegory for who we are," Fanning concludes.
Then the two are called away to help roll up the carpets and tarpaulin before the rain starts. It's nearly time to roll on to the next town.