• Photo: Paul Blakemore

  • Photo: Zakaria El Attaoui

  • Photo: Paul Blakemore

  • Photo: Paul Blakemore

  • Photo: Paul Blakemore

  • Photo: Billy Alwen

Circus Around & About

Various artists
UK and Morrocan

Circus Around and About is a pilot project, devised by partners Crying Out Loud and Take Art and supported with project funding from Arts Council England. 

Three UK circus companies alongside one Moroccan work together to make a circus offer of four outdoor shows, presented as double bills, to rural promoters in the South West. The partners will support the development of the work to present 28 outdoor performances across the South West rural touring network.

Circus Around & About is bringing high quality, small-scale, family friendly circus to village communities in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Somerset from July through to September and is a partnership between Somerset-based Take Art and London-based Crying Out Loud.

‘This pilot project takes more circus to more people across the South West. Crying Out Loud is very happy to be collaborating with Take Art and the Rural Touring schemes to further develop the network reaching new communities who’ve not experienced contemporary circus in this way before.’

Rachel Clare, Artistic Director, Crying Out Loud

Following the impact of Covid-19 on community life, Circus Around & About offers a varied selection of circus double bills in outdoor locations. Each outdoor event will feature two shows by extraordinary national and international touring companies.

‘On behalf of the south west rural touring agencies, I am delighted to be developing a circus touring project with Crying Out Loud. For some time I have felt these two worlds have much to offer each other and this pilot gives us the opportunity to reach audiences hungry to re-engage with live performance.’

Ralph Lister, Executive Director, Take Art

Press

  • ‘Funny, earthy & mechanically ingenious’
    FLOWN Pirates of the Carabina

    Circus Sideshow magazine.

  • Why book this show

    Highly skilled performers

    Engaging storytelling

    Fun and funny shows

    Interesting circus equipment (Cyr Wheel/Simple Cypher)

    Ingenious staging (Pirates of the Carabina are performing in and on a London taxi)

    Family friendly (these are not just kids shows which adults can tolerate!)

    Covid safe

    Local, quality entertainment

  • Key target markets

    Families with children aged 5 years plus

    Existing attenders of the arts living locally

    People looking for something to do that is Covid safe

    Young people interested in circus and dance

    Tourists

    People living locally who are engaged with village life

  • Shows

    Pirate Taxi – Pirates of the Carabina

    A small scale outdoor circus show with large tales to tell!

    Sometimes serious, but more often funny, this is a family friendly outdoor show suitable for adventurers of all ages. Pirate Taxi features Pirates of the Carabina’s trademark mechanically ingenious sets, extraordinary aerial, circus and live music performed in, on and above an old-school London taxi. Drawing inspiration from the true life journeys (travelling, migration and displacement) of the company from Circus to Somerset, the stories of people we meet along the way and the annual migration of birds, the taxi is a travelling trove of stories, notions and ruminations. And there is always room for one more.

    Ripe – Tilly Lee-Kronick

    What do you expect when you see me?

    Ripe is a surreal exploration of our attitudes and assumptions towards female performers. Using technical static trapeze, contemporary dance and original text, Ripe aims to unpeel stereotypes that people wrap around women’s bodies.

    Roll Up Roll Up – Simple Cypher

    Simple Cypher’s premiere production combines the passion for circus and hip hop culture through a mash-up of Cyr wheel and juggling with musicality, originality and innovative play.

    Switching up freestyle and highly technical choreographies this performance showcases a mischievous shorthand and unique style formed through friendship, commitment and a shared vision.

    Built through the foundations of hip hop and circus Simple Cypher fuse both to create new, uplifting experiences. Style, originality and unity are key fundamentals of hip hop culture and have a profound influence on the work the company creates.

    Routine – Company Zid

    Routine is also about hope, going beyond one’s boundaries.

    At the crossroads between parkour and circus Routine is about boredom, about those inactive youngsters spending their days leaning against walls, with no hope of doing anything with their lives. But Routine is also about hope, going beyond one’s boundaries,

    Self-challenging. In order to step up, Routine invites us to use our body and mind as one and only mean.