Sud Ouest27 May 2016
Plume, Joyous and Virtuostic
BOULAZAC – The circus is performing “Tempus fugit? Une ballade sur le chemin perdu” through Saturday, June 4, under its big top in the Lamoura Plain
A luminous ball dances freely to the chords of a piano. In the back of the stage, a tarp encounters a big machine spewing smoke and steam. Musicians and actors surround it, playing and jiving with the party. They form a circle around a flying acrobat as she throws herself in the air, even higher, even faster.
Invited by the Centre Culturel Agora, Cirque Plume has pitched their tent in the Lamoura Plain in Boulazac, where they will play through Saturday, June 4. They’ll offer ten performances of “Tempus fugit ? Une bal¬lade sur le chemin perdu.”The spirit of the show is reflected from the very first scene.
Created for the 30th anniversary of the company, the show retraces its history, not through a recited narrative but through signs, references, and “small bites of memories” as director Bernard Kudlak puts it so well. With the city of Besançon and the industrial Franche-Comté region as a starting point, a factory is symbolically transported on the scene—all this, to then quickly get away from it all, for circus is“ a poem in action.”
Gesture and music
Cirque Plume introduces a succession of tableaus. Joyous and virtuostic, they build upon another in a rigorous construction, a well-oiled machine after three years of touring. Hand-stitched, we almost want to say. The aesthetic is refined. With total precision, gestures and movement enter into a dialogue with ever-omnipresent music.
In “La symphonie des verres” an acrobat dances on tubes, accompanied by their crystalline sounds, reinforcing a sense of fragility. The Cyr wheel is brought into a dizzying whirlwind through multiple tricks. Plume plays with shadows behind a large white curtain. A clown penetrates it, captures the sun, and places it on his face to make a red nose.
Extensive scenes involving the 13 artistes of the company alternate with duos and solos that unleash laughs. The audience enters right into the show. Despite the size of the big top with its 1,000 sears, we have the feeling of closeness: we share an authentic emotion with the artists. This translates enthusiastically starting on the first night, Tuesday, to a standing ovation.
Chantal Gibert