Mezmerizing lightbulbs - Glitch at Umeå contemporary circus festival

It has been a while and I have still many thoughts and reviews from the Umeå contemporary circus festival that I want to share with you!

Now is the time to write about  G.L.I.T.C.H, a solo juggling show by Johan Wellton. The show had a sneak premiere in Umeå before the official premiere th 18th of september at Vara konserthus.

During the festival I heard a lot of discussion about if circus i art or entertainment, and when I ased the writer Margareta Sörensson, she answered that she though La Soirée was entertainment, but G.L.I.T.C.H was art.

When we entered the room, tha show had already started. Johan Wellton was on the stage, holding a monologe very expressive about the stress in life and not knowing it which direction to go. While he was holding this monologe, he did some really amazing juggling tricks that could have been the finale for most other jugglers. But Wellton is lost in is thought, thinking about his life doing this technically advanced juggling.

"-And I was waiting for her, but she never came...I thought maybe we could have a nice time and drink some tea. Where is she? I made two cups of tea, put them nicely on the table, arranged them, rearranged them, and waited for her. She had still not showed up... and the tea got cold, so I made two new cups of tea. But what should I do with the other cold cups of tea? take them away, and pretend that I haven't been waiting, or leave them so she could see them? The two new cups got cold too, and she didn't arrive, so I made two new cups of tea! But what to do?!"

This is a part of the monolouge that I remember the clearest for some reson (translated and writted down very freely though). He was talking faster and faster and I felt familiar with this feeling that you are "juggling you everyday life" fast and fast but have no idea of why we do it. Why do we stress and care so much about things that may not matter? Why are we not happy with nothing but the perfect? My feeling was that Wellton was addressing these questions in the first part of the show.

Then it all speeds up even more, until things set on fire, fall from the floor and Wellton is almost angry and stressed and suddendly finds himself crashed on the floor.

Picture from www.johanwellton.com

The the show suddendly changes everything and the rig with the pendulum lights is suddendly present. It all consist of a bar in the roof, with cords of hangling lighted light bulbs. I was mesmerized just by the view of this.

Wellton then starts to "juggle" the hangling light bulbs i different ways to a soft background music in enjoyment. Besides the patters made from the swinging light bulbs, I also appriciated the technical aspects of the light bulb rig. There was one part where Wellton was playing music by juggling them, with a camera regristrating where the light bulbs where to give the corresponding sound.

From beeing a chaotic and hectic show, it goes to a very peaceful lightbulb swinging, and I could have be watching that part longer. In the end, he is almost not touching the bulb, but just like us watching them making their own patterns in the air with a light trace following them. Maybe the lightbulbs are ideas and thoughts that are finally breaking free?

Visit Johan Welltons homepage (SWE/ENG)

Read more about GLITCH (In Swedish)

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