Review From: The Circus Yard ‘Big Puck’, Brighton Fringe Festival; 25th May 2025
It seems that everyone and their aunt are taking up hair hanging these days, whilst corde lisse (vertical rope) artistes are two a penny. And we are said to have a TikTok attention span. So, is this hour-long display of corde lisse and hair hanging from Art For Rainy Days worthy of your time? The answer is an emphatic yes.
As we take our seats, a lone woman – Izabele Kuzelyte – dressed in black and muttering sotto voce, slowly paces the subduedly lit stage. While Kuzelyte whispers, a second woman – Alise Bokaldere – also in black, is slowly dragged on stage and then upright by a rope suspended from the centre of the tent and tethered to her braided hair. She starts to circle around the edge of the ring at the boundary allowed by her tethered hair, using her arms and body in a slow, expressive choreography evocative of supplication, resistance and acceptance whilst her gaze is focussed but passive. It is mesmerising.
After some time, Bokaldere lies prone, toes tucked against the edge of the stage, her head and upper torso angled up by the taut rope, now diagonal, that remains attached to her hair. And then, incredibly, as Bokaldere braces, Kuzelyte takes hold of the rope and starts to climb. Every move, however controlled, however carefully done, pulls upon Bokaldere’s hair, neck and torso. She is, in effect, the shock absorber between the stage and the aerialist.
As the corde lisse is pulled up, Bokaldere moves with it to the centre of the stage, still the absorbing link between ground and rope, or earth and heaven, and Kuzelyte continues to move wondrously slowly and intriguingly on the rope. Occasionally, Bokaldere, in a Zen like state, closes her eyes, presumably when the strain really tells.
Accompanying the movement is Latvian Balkan folk music, pleasantly droning and with polyphonic harmony, that has been reinvented from the original by composer and producer Adam Dupree. It sits beautifully with Bokaldere’s choreography and Kuzelyte’s aerial snaking.
Water now begins to flow from the rope onto Bokaldere’s head and down to her body, drenching her clothes, as the rope is pulled up, pulling Bokaldere off the ground with it. She starts to spin, water flicking out, recalling Whirling Dervishes and their dedication and focus.
Character is not broken for a moment during the hour, despite the strain and pain that must be felt. This is such an exercise in trust, care and responsibility, one which extends beyond the two performers on stage to the third member of the company, Jason Dupree, offstage, who pages in and out the cable from which the corde lisse hangs to give just the right amount of tension for Kuzelyte and Bokaldere to play with.
A graduate of the Latvian Academy of Culture in her native country, Bokaldere’s movement quality and choreography is outstanding, and reflects her background in contemporary dance, to which she has only recently added hair hanging. Kuzelyte, a Lithuanian graduate of the FLIC circus school in Turin, has absolute control of true slow motion on the rope, whilst Dupree – from the UK and a graduate of the National Centre For Circus Arts in London and the University of the Arts in Stockholm – brings a fine dramaturgical eye to the piece.
I was so enthralled by this mesmerising show that I returned to watch it all over again the following night. Each night saw the audience rapt in absorbed silence until the very end when they gave sustained applause and a standing ovation.
CREDITS
Artistic directors – Jason Dupree, Alise Madara Bokaldere, Izabele Kuzelyte
Performers – Alise Madara Bokaldere, Izabele Kuzelyte
Dramaturg – Jason Dupree
Music composer and producer – Adam Dupree
Costume designer – Aurelija Rancane
Creative rigger – Jacob Jakobson
Lighting designer – Nikola Suhareva
Hair hanging mentor – Ingrid Eskusson
