Review from: Circusstad Festival, Maritiem Museum terrace, Rotterdam; 1st May 2025, 15.30
Imagine creating a precision ball bouncing show using the angles of pillars in a concrete underpass, and then wanting to take it on tour. How would you do it?
The Belgian company Post from Hessdalen’s impressive way of touring such a show is to build the set into a lorry with a curtain side, which sits alongside a trailer that seats 45 adults or a few more children. As the audience settles, the one performer – juggler Stijn Grupping – in grey tracksuit and red cap, is absorbed in hoovering up a mass of balls, one by one, that litter an underpass and placing them in a basket. In the background is the muted sound of traffic until, for a moment, Grupping takes out an earpod and we can hear the pounding music that accompanies him in his endeavour. Task completed, Grupping, like an eccentric urban troglodyte, sits and ponders whether a ball bounced against the wall can land back in the basket. A precision ball bouncing sequence follows using all kinds of angles and surfaces with unerring accuracy and an increasing numbers of balls in flow. There’s the same kind of awe and amazement that comes with watching an expert pool player lining up the trickiest of shots and potting multiple balls.
But then this show goes much further as balls that are thrown one way go another, taking on an incredible life of their own. Both set and show turn out to be very much more complex than one presumes on entering the lorry. I’ll say no more than to highly recommend you see this show if you have the chance. If, as here, Post from Hessdalen’s other show, Man Strikes Back, is on too, ensure you see Ballroom first should you decide to see both. If you choose just one, make it Ballroom as it has the feel of a more evolved version of Man Strikes Back.
The show was created by Grupping (who, having juggled between the ages of ten and eighteen, then worked in film for many years) and theatre director Ine Van Baelen, with the crucial though not immediately apparent involvement of their expert musical, lighting and technical team.
Creation: Ine Van Baelen & Stijn Grupping
Performance: Stijn Grupping
Direction: Ine Van Baelen
Music: Frederik Meulyzer & Jochem Baelus
Scenography: Lodewijk Heylen
Choreography: Kinga Jaczewska
Lighting design: Lucas Van Haesbroeck
Technology: Bert Laurijssens
Graphic design: Watson Memić
Outside eye: Koen Haagdorens
Coproduction: CIRKL, Theater op de Markt, MiramirO, Perpodium
With the support of: the Flemish Government
Distribution: Klaartje Brouns (JE BURO)
With thanks to: Frans Heylen, Karolien Derwael, Vincent Company, hetpaleis
