Petit Mal (9:50)

Circus Post is a series of short films made by Crying Out Loud and film-maker Deborah May contextualising the development of contemporary circus over the past 40 years.

Combining the skills of a breakdancer, a cage fighter, and an ex-gymnast (and chef), Race Horse Company attack circus with a sullen punk-rock attitude.

Their show  Petit Mal, set amid the wreckage of a tire-yard / junk-pile / ended world, cuts their bruised, all-in physical style with a surreal edge: as the walls of reality come down, multiple Elvises propagate through the stage-world and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police meet Joy Division (probably for the first time).

Sat here among the giant tyres of their set, looked down on by the spry likeness of Scrooge McDuck (long story…), Petri Tuominen, Rauli Kosonen and Kalle Lehto talk about finding a sense of hope within a world of ruin, the impulse to laugh in the face of disaster, and the moments when gravity falls away – only to return with a crash.