CINARS - Inside Out (Cirkus Cirkör)

I hate to say it, but I really don't think this was a particularly successful sales pitch. I know I shouldn't even be referring to a show as a sales pitch, but that's kind of the point of CINARS. And its not that the show is bad, its that I had no idea of what the show was supposed to be, really.

For some reason, Cirkör chose to focus more on video that its actual artists. There were, of course, excerpts from the show, but they let the entire promo video (embedded below) run while a guy did some bad simple wheel in front of the screen. I can see how it might have been a good idea to show the very well filmed promo video, but next to the companies that actually performed coherent portions of their shows it just didn't work.

For starters, you couldn't help but wonder if the show is actually like that. Having an extremely visually stimulating video projected while some other visually stimulating thing is going on simultaneously in front of that visually stimulating video is just way too much to take in. You don't even want to look.

But worse is that next to the very artfully filmed video, the live version just looked, well, cheap. The worst part, for me, was the singer. Her costume, a long red dress and feathered head dress, screams elegance and power. But the woman in the costume was moving like a 15 year old grooving to some indie rock tune in the back of a bar. Speaking of indie rock music, for me, there was a serious disconnect between what was happening on stage (specifically, the Universe the artists were creating) and the accompanying music. When I see a decaying traditional circus that seems to have ripped the heart out of some unsuspecting audience member, I expect the music to kind of support that. And while I must admit it does work more or less for the video, it quickly becomes out of place during the live version of the show. Perhaps as a whole, this is not the case. I couldn't say.

My friend K, however, was beautiful. He's a slack rope walker and for me is a perfect example of what a contemporary circus artist should be.

I would definitely be curious to see this show in full, but not without a supply of ibuprofen.