• Flaque by Defracto Photo: Pierre Morel
  • Al Cubo by Company BettiCombo Photo: Vincent Beaume
  • Circa at Auch Photo: Rachel Clare
  • The Forgotten/L'Oublié(e) by Raphaëlle Boitel Photo: Vic Frankowski

2015 highlights

2015 was a busy year at Crying Out Loud – read on for the highlights.

The continuing development of Circus Evolution was one of our main focuses in 2015. In May we presented Bromance  by Barely Methodical Troupe and in October Circus Mayhem  featuring Miranda La Mutanta, Rimski, Jon Hicks and Company BettiCombo. The aims of Circus Evolution, a consortium of 9 regional venues, are to develop audiences for circus, increase diversity of audiences, increase engagement, improve confidence and develop knowledge of circus, raise its profile and contribute to the sustainability of the art form. Nearly 5,000 people saw the shows at 22 tour venues, with a further 200 participating in workshops including students from the National Centre for Circus Arts who worked with Company BettiCombo on object manipulation.

Behind the scenes of Circus Evolution, we invited programmers and venue directors to circus festivals in the UK and France to develop their knowledge of British and international work. Read what Katy Snelling from Oxford Playhouse had to say about the research trip to CIRCa in Auch.

Raphaëlle Boitel’s The Forgotten/L’Oublié(e)  had its UK premiere at Brighton Festival, where its near capacity audiences waxed lyrical on Twitter about the show. The Abbey Theatre, Dublin liked it so much they booked it for 5 nights in November. Over 3,000 people saw the directorial debut of this young French director who first won acclaim for her work as a performer with James Thiérrée. In the same month we took 6 Circus Evolution promoters to see Raphaëlle’s new creation Uproar 5  (5emes Hurlants)  at the Douai Hippodrome, France.

Jeanne Mordoj, an Associate Artist at Crying Out Loud joined forces with Tom Gould, a PhD Student at King’s College at Hackney City Farm and the Southbank Centre. Together, they investigated new ways of making work. For Jeanne, it resulted in an extension to her piece La Poème w hich you can see at the Roundhouse as part of CircusFest in 2016.

We also presented Bruit de Couloir  by Clément Dazin, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of Vive le Fringe at the Institut français d’Écosse. The List, in a 4 star review, said, ‘Precise and sincere…moving and quietly original.’ Total Theatre said, ‘A thoughtful piece of work, expertly performed.’ And Katherine Kavanagh wrote on Twitter, ‘every year I fall more in love with jugglers’.

Our relationship with EUNIC and The Place continued with the co-presentation of Currency, an annual festival of experimental European work that blurs the boundaries between circus and dance, now in its third year.  Artists performing included Anders Duckworth, Marco da Silva Ferreira, Defracto, Nathalie Reckert and Matt Pang (PanGottic). During Currency FACE hosted its first UK meeting and the festival was live streamed and watched by over 2,000 worldwide.