FLOWN at the Theatre Royal, 22, 23 & 24 May 2014
Reviewed by Andréa Childs
The audience packed into Brighton’s Theatre Royal could be forgiven for missing the start of Flown. Some were still taking their seats while the performers, in full view on the open set, prepared for takeoff. But… the man stumbling along the stalls suddenly appeared on stage and was soon playing washboard and saxophone in the live band. The joke of the show is that no one is prepared (the trapeze artist is caught pressing her dress at the start of her act and ends up flying through the air with ironing board dangling from her fingers). Spectacularly choreographed chaos is the order of the night, with each stunt seemingly on the verge of disaster – the aerialist ‘out of control’ and spinning in her silks; the light rig ‘falling’ as the strongman attempts a precarious balance; the diva losing her wig as she swings upside down.
It’s adrenaline-fuelled, acrobatic anarchy but also poetic, moving and exquisitely beautiful. The multi-talented artists of the Pirates of the Carabina company compose their own songs and play and sing them live. A mesmerising acrobatic duet on a vertical pole is as memorable for the emotional connection between the performers as it is for their athleticism. Monologues reveal sly humour (my son loved the Finnish performer’s incomprehension about the Brits’ love of skinny jeans) but also the reality of running away to the circus (fine as a kid, but what happens when you’re a single dad raising your own child on tour?). The audience laughed out loud, gasped in awe and silently held their breath as this mix of circus and theatre played out before them. The finale was an uproarious cacophony of flying drum kit, soaring divas, spinning hoops and air guitar (literally; the musician was suspended above the stage as she crashed out her power chords). Flown had taken flight and the audience were more than willing to go along for the ride.
Review by Max Outhwaite, aged 8, and family:
Pirates of the Carabina’s show Flown at the Theatre Royal is so utterly brilliant in every way possible that we cannot possibly do it justice in a review. You simply HAVE to see this show for yourselves. It combines all that is brilliant in contemporary acrobatic circus performances with live music that could quite easily have been the main show in itself, with an added twist of comedy that elevated this show to something supremely wonderful, original and surprising. Four of us attended…two adults, an eight year old and a six year old….and in the words of my eight year old “it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.” The character of ‘Gloria’ and her pony left us in stitches of laughter numerous times….even on the way home just reminiscing about it. The show kept you entertained and in awe from the first moment to the last when even exiting the theatre involved meeting the performers and shaking their hands. It was a show that you simply didn’t want to ever end, and would quite happily see again and again. We absolutely unanimously LOVED LOVED LOVED it.
Find out more about Flown at Brighton Festival 2014: http://brightonfestival.org/event/2420/flown/
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