●●●●○

Tumble Circus
Tiger Dublin Fringe
Project Arts Centre

“The most politically astute circus company… no, no, I can’t say that, that sounds pretentious…”. These words are uttered by Tumble Circus‘ co-founder and prime performer Kenneth during the first act of their newest show, Unsuitable. Tumble Circus creates circus performance for educated adults; a pastiche of acrobatics, clowning, tightrope walking, poetry, readings, and performance art. It attempts, through a kind of physical poetry, to bring tangibility to current political issues. This could certainly be considered a pretentious undertaking, as what is more self indulgent than re-representing an innocent childhood amusement as a sophisticated commentary on Ireland’s social landscape?

When one thinks of  the ‘circus’  one imagines pure, unadulterated entertainment with no strings attached, except that twinge of guilt one may feel when a horse is forced to prance around unnaturally in a tutu. Unsuitable is circus with barbed wire attached, quite literally. One act consists of the three female performers dancing slowly in a circle while their male counterparts enclose their swaying bodies in a long line of barbed wire. Watching the wire press into their exposed flesh as the women dance closer together for safety adds a visceral dimension to  issues surrounding gender. The lights go down and the women are struck by the men in the darkness. Their shrieks of terror giving way to a final grunt of male satisfaction to which the audience respond with laughter, tinged with unease.

You could almost taste the unease that exuded from every spectator’s pore throughout the spectacle. After all, it is the anxiety provoked by dangerous feats that makes acrobatics so thrilling to watch. Tumble Circus’ aesthetic further induces this anxiety. The performers are uniformly dressed in simple white shorts and a tank top. The set is minimalistic, with props set neatly to the side for use in future acts. It is the performers’ human ability that takes its rightful place at centre stage.

Death defying acts are not the only unsettling forms of entertainment put to use by Tumble Circus. They also employ dark comedy on their quest to be “Ireland’s most politically astute circus”. A suicidal clown, an Acrobat dressed in drag, and an exquisite reading from an erotic novel all suitably lightened the sombre tone of the performance.

Consisting of several carefully curated and skillfully executed acts, Unsuitable certainly “turned circus on its head”, as is the mission statement of Tumble Circus. At times, the show’s format felt disjointed, as with each act, a different story or issue was introduced. It appeared that the purpose of the performance was simply to address as many issues as possible using exhibitionist tactics. Pretentious? Unsuitable is undoubtedly and unashamedly so.  However, this just made it all the more relatable and relevant in our media saturated, self-aware society.