Le travailleur catalan25 December 2015
With them, time flies...
Archipel. Cirque Plume enchants the crowds.
Every Christmas the Archipel Theatre programs a family show with a festive air. This is a great tradition and for 2015 the team made no mistake in inviting Cirque Plume for six highly successful evenings in front of audiences aged from 3 to 80 years.
With a show that so generously combines quality, humour, amazing acrobatic virtuosity, visual poetry and more, how could it be any other way?
Having been around for no less than 30 years, Cirque Plume has nothing to prove but this does not stop them from constantly reinventing themselves. There is a noticeable distribution of efforts, the women provide the technical prowess, the men play the clowns and all of them are excellent musicians, with a special mention for Benoît Schick the fearless pianist who is there throughout the show and also composed the music. The show bears the title "Tempus Fugit" and is presented like an album of successive animated images which pass at a breathless pace. We go from traditional circus gags where the protagonists repeatedly stumble across unlikely obstacles (to the hilarity of all), to trapeze and tight-rope acts, referencing a film by Fellini or Millet’s Angelus amongst others, to a flying violinist from a Chagall painting... We are regaled with unforgettable moments, like the young woman inside a white canvas which inflates until it swallows her whole. Or another who effortlessly climbs to the top of a pole, twists, rising and falling with incredible grace. Or the man braced inside a hoop describing arabesque forms. And the music, the lights; the stage is littered with odd and bizarre props... the whole effect is marvellous, provided by sensitive and poetic artists that exude talent and energy. What more could you hope for to forget the world’s pains as the festive season approaches.
N.G.