Tim Hughes gets stuck into a night of raucous, brassy circus from Circa Tsuica
AS a theatre show, it sounded intriguing: a hybrid brass band/ circus troop from Southern France, combining music with acrobatics, and named after a particularly potent Romanian brandy.
It promised thrills, chaos and stirring instrumentation. And that’s exactly what it delivered.
Circus Tsuica is a group of 11 musicians who also double as jugglers, clowns and acrobats. They look like an anarchic marching band – with mismatched uniforms and peaked caps coupled with tights, shorts, or three-quarter length trousers – and appear to take great delight in making each other look foolish – the only exception being when they are falling in love with each other.
Like a brass version of tin-pan percussion show Stomp, Opus 7 sees the company embarking on a series of unlinked set-piece showpieces of acrobatic and musical dexterity – acts brought to life through Balkan-style brass, gypsy stomp and klezmer.
They start off balanced on a long plank, turned into a seesaw by a stack of breeze blocks. Performers blast away into their instruments while being flung into the air – at times spectacularly.
At other times they hover weightlessly from each other – with just a foot hooked around a partner’s neck and Newton’s Third Law of Motion (the one about each action having an equal but opposite reaction) to keep them perfectly balanced.
A sequence where a young woman is carried aloft by her partner – her body seemingly floating around his – while she continues to play a lilting riff on a ukulele – is beyond beautiful. The culmination – with her raised above his head united the audience in delight.
Other bits are sillier – but nonetheless appealed to the largely young crowd, who also appreciated the candy floss and popcorn being served up in the foyer – itself done up like a circus big top.
The night ended with an exercise in soundpainting – a technique in live composing – involving the Oxfordshire Dixieland Jazz Band. It was great, the performers matching the cast in talent.
A hugely enjoyable night then. I’ll never look at a brass band the same again.
4/5
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