Arts:Blog

Festival Review: Paris de Nuit *****

Jo Turbitt reviews 'a cocktail of seduction, sensitivity, laughter and sorrow'.

If Kander and Ebb did circus, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t like this. This is not your typical circus cabaret show: Paris De Nuit is delicate debauchery, a cocktail of seduction, sensitivity, laughter and sorrow. With his astonishing cast, producer and director Bence Vagi creates delicious physical imagery of entangled limbs that go on forever, attached to bodies with the flexibility of a rubber band and the strength of a rugby team.

The show is crafted with precision: one moment we’re in awe of the exquisite tricks of the performers, and then in a blink we empathise with their characters. At no point did I think ‘And? So what? Where does this fit in?’ Slickly knitted together sections lead you seductively through the streets of Paris to the next encounter, next moment and the next salacious character.

Each talent is seamlessly woven together and placed masterfully into a piece of circus theatre, depicting a community of characters that could reside at the foot of Montmatre in the shadow of the Moulin. The performers’ talents (and oh my god, are they talented) aren’t contained to their extraordinary individual acts: their acting, comic timing, musicality and energy as a company is fantastic. They are most definitely a company, not individuals thrown together in a circus cabaret.

This strong collective extends to the musicians who have been integrated into the work, again seamlessly, both supporting the ambience but also throwing in their own flare.

Take me back: I love Paris.