Le Grand C

Compagnie XY in Le Grand C at the Hippodrome, Gt Yarmouth, part of Norfolk and Norwich Festival 2012.

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 28 May 2012

The Hippodrome’s traditional arena was the perfect staging for a show that took circus art form in new directions.

French ensemble Compagnie XY presented Le Grand C, a piece of theatre combining circus acrobatics with physical theatre and choreography. It was beautifully measured, slow and mysteriously dream-like at the start as the scale of performance skills were displayed.

Four-person towers and pyramids were created, then carefully gave way to new controlled contortions. All 17 in the troupe relished tumbles, mid-air somersaults and flying from one cluster to another, literally. It was a fusion of observational mime and physicality, demanding and challenging.

There were bundles and clever, amusing little interactions between performers, particular pairings for a moment of action, then a different combination. It was continuous flow of action by total-trust theatre, with safety very much provided by each other, but as part of the show.

The crowd gasps throughout said it all. This was impressive wow factor, circus but not as we know it. They can’t come back soon enough.