The show had already started when we got in; the artists were on stage messing around with some kitchen tools and things and it made a nice ambience. They already started to make some contact with the audience by asking things, making my friend prove that she could break an egg with just one hand and talking about food.
The interactions with the audience was the thing that made this show stand out compared to other contemporary circuses I have seen. It proved that interaction with the audience can be made even if we were seated in an old theatre, and they did it both by talking to us, come out to us and letting people up on stage.
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| After the show 7 fingers were inviting us to share some food with them |
The pace of the numbers with the small things in between gave the show good dynamics. Sometimes it is very focused on one performer or one thing, but in the big group acrobatic numbers there are so much going on that I could watch it again to see all the things I didn't this time. Not all the performers had a solo number, and it is not a bad thing but I somehow came to expect them to have that and found myself waiting and wondering if the show was really over when all the performers didn't made a solo.
My friend who had never seen contemporary circus before were both amazed by the circus skills, and surprised that there were so much "theatre" in it. The interaction made us involved and the playfulness took away the prejudices of "seriousness and deep subjects" that some people might expect from contemporary circus.
I really liked this show and I would recommend it for both people that are new to contemporary circus as already interested ones, as it is a friendly show that connects with the audience around a theme that is very personal so everyone can relate to it.
Thanks for writing about this show, I was interested to know more about it as I haven't had a chance to see it! It's interesting that the 7 Fingers seem to have used lots of the same audience engagement techniques that Circa employed in last year's production of 'Close Up' (perhaps more successfully?!) Did you see that show at all?
SvaraRaderaSadly I have not seen "Close Up", but I have seen "Knee Deep" last year. I looked up your post about Close up and could not really figure out how well their contact with the audience worked out?
RaderaIn "Cuisine and confessions" the interaction with the audience didn't really had so much to do with circus as with food and meetings over food. They would let people mingle on stage with some olives, and giving us food to taste, addressing one audience member to taste their food on stage. I think this was successful because the audience could be involved it the show without needing to do any circus so they could feel comfortable and that the performers and audience was at the same level when it came to meetings over food (as opposed to not being on the same level in circus, when some audience on stage might feel a little nervous of being involved).
Actually now when I have had some perspective on this, I think the audience felt extra involved by the fact that they had learnt some Swedish phrases as well that they said, so it felt like we were meeting half way both in language and circus.