Review From: The Circus Yard ‘Big Puck’, Brighton Fringe Festival; 24th May 2025
The Nose Dive Assembly – like the previous two productions in the Revel Puck Circus‘ ‘risk’ trilogy – is a family friendly, tented show centred on acts, so it is similar in many ways to the twenty or so other non-animal tented shows touring the UK. Yet there are some crucial differences. The most obvious are that many of the nine-strong cast are British trained (seven are graduates from the National Centre for Circus Arts) and that the company eschew spangly up-the-bum leotards in favour of boldly patterned jumpsuits or shorts and shirts. This aligns with their ethos to reject the spectacular body and embrace the body that does spectacular things.
Judging by the audience enthusiasm for this Saturday afternoon performance, with the 500-seat capacity tent practically full of families with infant and junior children, this circus can successfully hold its own against the competition.
Linking the acts is one of two Canadians in the cast, Arielle Lauzon, a former competitive gymnast who trained at the École de Cirque de Québec. Wearing a red jacket and a black top hat adorned with a feather, Lauzon is more clown than ring mistress as she is desperate to fly and, between acts, tries all kinds of ways to do so throughout the show. The crowd is on her side whether she enters wearing a Heath-Robinson contraption of electric fans that she hopes will propel her to the heights, or with Florence the flamboyant, fantastic, flying flamingo and the aerially adept drone Peggy over whom Lauzon leaps and dives (more please!).
The first act in the 40-minute first half is Annie Zita Bachman on the cloudswing with crowd delighting throw-outs that cause much shrieking. Another aerial act follows: Imani Vital with a frantic flurry of moves on the aerial straps to Pharell Williams Freedom. It’s less thrilling than the cloudswing but has the frisson of the aerialist not having the fall back of a lunge. It’s almost back to earth next with Becky Robins balancing neatly on the handstand canes. Thorne Bailey and Fiona Thornhill collaborate on a skilfully synchronised Cyr Wheel routine that sees Bailey raised into the air on the platform he spins on, creating room below for Thornhill to spin in the ring as the lighting switches between each of them.
After a twenty-minute interval Lauzon attempts to fly on a treadmill during which another performer stands on her shoulder as she jogs. Next, Sebastian Parker and Emily Lannigan absolutely rock on the teeterboard to The Rolling Stones Sympathy for the Devil. The second Canadian act follows; Eric McGill with a stunning swinging trapeze routine, testament to his background as a competitive trampolinist who then studied trapeze at the National Circus School in Montreal. Top tricks include a pirouette from hanging by his ankles to sitting on the bar and, at the back of the swing, taking his hands off the ropes to stand perfectly balanced on the bar, hands by his sides. It is a clean routine with precision landings.
The final act of the 40-minute second half is the Wheel of Death, a staple of current tented circus and the third I have seen this year though the only one performed by women. Emily Lannigan and Fiona Thornhill’s routine does not currently feature the big tricks on the outside of the wheel that the other circuses have but still gains plenty of oohs and aahs from the audience. Lannigan and Thornhill came to the Wheel after their degree course (the NCCA does not teach such big kit) and have cleverly choreographed a routine full of synchronised and mirroring moves to Laurie Anderson’s O Superman with great communication between the pair. Technical progress is evident for this year one of the duo walks on the outside of the Wheel with sensible trepidation that the audience feels and aligns with. More than any other act, the Wheel conjures up ‘rather them than me’ in my mind and I applaud them for braving it at all.
The show has bedded in and is tighter since I saw it last year. More could, I believe, be done on the lighting front though that may require further investment in equipment. Overall, the Artistic Director, Luke Hallgarten, and Assistant Director, Fiona Thornhill, are making great progress with this young company and I look forward to seeing it develop further.
CREDITS
Artistic Director: Luke Hallgarten
Assistant Director, Cyr Wheel Artist and Wheel of Death Artist: Fiona Thornhill
Cyr Wheel Artist: Thorne Bailey
Cloud Swing Artist: Annie Zita Bachman
Head Rigger and Swinging Trapeze: Eric McGill
Wheel of Death and Teeterboard: Emily Lannigan
Teeterboard: Sebastian Parker
Straps: Imani Vital
Ring Master and Acrobat: Arielle Lauzon
Hand Stands: Becky Robins
Stage Crew and Rigger: Adam Havsky
Producer: Nix Pretlove
