Review from: Cirqu’ Aarau Festival, Switzerland; 20th June 2025
This two-man show from Circus Ronaldo takes place in a modest big top with raked seating that takes up a little over half of the circumference. Instead of a ring, there’s an octagon of planked flooring with a full washing line behind. On the floor stands a piano with lit candles and a filthy bath in which sits ageing and muttering Danny Ronaldo. What hair he has left is dishevelled and, as he washes his crockery and smalls alongside his body in the bath, he listens on a vintage reel-to-reel tape recorder to sounds of the audience applauding his circus acts back in the day.
His young adult son, Pepijn Ronaldo, arrives, bearing a red balloon as a gift, and witnesses this pitiful scene. They are pleased to see each other but tensions arise between a father reluctant to admit his age and acknowledge that his son is grown, and a son who wants to please his father but doubts that he has more to learn from him.
The challenges each face are neatly demonstrated. The son wants to show his father his hat juggling routine, but how can he play the music when there’s no USB port on the reel-to-reel tape recorder? When his father tries to demonstrate some tricks with a hat, trying to throw one behind his back to land on his head but with less dexterity and flexibility than he had, his son surreptitiously helps him out by sneakily catching the hat and popping it on his dad’s head.
Along the way, all kinds of musical instruments are played, from the accordion to the sousaphone which Pepijn lays on the floor and blows into whilst holding a handstand. Most impressive of all is when the pair combine to turn a genuine piano into a rola-bola. As the piano rocks back and forth, on a large roller, under the control of the two generations the proximity of the bath takes on a new dimension!
The premise, as sixth and seventh generations of the Belgian circus family, is terrific. The characters are strong (though way too whimsical for me at times). And the circus skills – which include an aerial act performed on an airborne double bass – are excellent. Unfortunately, the show is really let down by a lack of pace. It is a significant fault given the show is advertised as running for 85 minutes without an interval, but ran even longer tonight. It is right that time is taken to establish character, right that there are dawning realisations, but as it stands there are longeurs upon longeurs, which do nothing for me and which one would have hoped could have been tightened over the four years since the show’s premiere.
CREDITS
Concept, Direction & Performance Danny Ronaldo, Pepijn Ronaldo Creation Danny Ronaldo, Pepijn Ronaldo, Seppe Verbist Technical Support Flor Huybens, Brechje De Ruysscher Final Direction Frank Van Laecke Coaching Steven Luca, Walter Janssens Sound Seppe Verbist Lighting (Tent) Frank Van Laecke, Dominique Pollet Lighting (Theater) Dominique Pollet Music David Van Keer, Birger Embrechts, Seppe Verbist, Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowsky Studio Music Recording Pedro Pozos, Cedric Murrath, Stefan Wellens, Harmen Goossens, Floris De Smet, Birger Embrechts, Jasper De Roeck, Corneel Didier, Seppe Verbist, Tom Lambrechts, Thomas Van Hees Costume Design Dotje Demuynck Set & Prop Danny Ronaldo, Erik Van den Broeck, Seppe Verbist, Marjolijn Midori, Nanosh Ronaldo, David Ronaldo, Johanna Daenen, Pepijn Ronaldo Management Lesley Verbeeck Communication Frauke Verreyde Tour Frans Brood Productions / Inti Baguet
Production Circus Ronaldo / Circus van Vlanderen vzw Co-production Théatre Firmin Gémier – La Piscine – Pôle national des arts du cirque, Châtenay-Malabry; Theater op de Markt – Dommelhof, Provincie Limburg; Miramiro, Gent
