An immersive circus show described as being “breathtakingly beautiful” is coming to Greater Manchester next week.
Set to take over a rarely-seen area of The Lowry building for what is expected to be an “unmissable event”, the all-female Chicago-based circus company, Aloft, will be bringing their critically-acclaimed Brave Spaceshow to Salford for the first time ever.
Known for being “a celebration of female strength and power”, Brave Space is now touring across Europe after it received five-star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year.
There’s only two UK tour dates in the calendar, and one of those is Salford.
Inspired by the idea of creating trusting communities in trying and dangerous times, Brave Space starts as a puddle of 250-yards of fabric on the floor, and then, with the help of the audience, grows into a massive blanket fort and a “world of hope” that includes everything from interdependent acts of aerial arts, and acrobatics, to juggling, balancing on eight-foot high poles, and more.
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Audiences will get to go behind the scenes into a rarely-seen area of theatre building as they experience an innovative circus “like never before”.
Described as being a show that’s “impossible” to perform without an audience, as the audience itself becomes an active part of the show, each act in Brave Space is designed to physically draw spectators into the experience of “putting themselves on the line for the safety and wellbeing of at-risk members of a community”.
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Activities the audience is encouraged to get involved in include helping to raise the tent, holding ropes that keep trapeze artists aloft, and even sometimes standing so close to the performers that you can hear their hearts beating… apparently.
“Brave Space was created as an antidote to the horrors of daily news cycle,” explained Circus Artist and Director, Shayna Swanson.
“It’s not a “safe space,” but, an immersive performance that requires the audience and artists to show up as their best selves, encouraging them to care of themselves and those around them. I wanted to create a show that felt like the opposite of The Handmaid’s Tale – something empowering, and I wanted to create the world I want to live in, even if it only exists for an hour at a time.”
Brave Space will run at The Lowry from Thursday 18 – Saturday 20 July, and you can find out more information and grab tickets here.
Featured Image – The Lowry
Theatre
Blue Man Group at The Lowry – odd, creative, entertaining and legendary
Daisy Jackson
The Blue Man Group is a weird show.
It’s weird to watch three men painted blue stare wide-eyed and wordless into an audience.
It’s weird that the blue men then make entire acts out of catching marshmallows in their mouths, or spewing UV paint from holes in the chests of their sweatshirts, or staging a silent blind date between two audience members.
The way they creep around the stage, pigeon-toed and wild-eyed, twitching nervously at every audience noise, is weird.
The way they never speak or smile or break character, even for a split second, is weird.
And it’s weird that this very weird formula has been captivating audiences for 37 years – until, that is, you see it for yourself.
Because every bit of oddness of a Blue Man Group show, including the Bluevolution World Tour currently at The Lowry, is balanced with brilliant comedic timing, genuine percussive talent, and ever-changing stage design.
At points during their show they make music from a drainpipe that they turn into a sort of drum-trombone hybrid.
They make music from cereal boxes and fake smartphone screens, and art from gumball machines and even an audience member.
The Blue Man Group making percussion from Cap’n Crunch cereal. Credit: SuppliedA star moment of The Blue Man Group at The Lowry. Credit: Supplied
The Blue Man Group warms up the crowd by displaying birthday messages or words of congratulations to specific audience members, like an Olympic gold medallist sat in the stalls, encouraging everyone to join in.
They fire out so many coloured streamer ribbons at one point that a child who’s walking down an aisle ends up entangled like a mummy on its way to a 90s rave.
They’re helped along throughout the show by a small, video game-like drumming presence in a sort of blue dreadlocked bob wig, who – to sound very Gen Z – gives me the ick.
There’s a fair amount of audience participation and if you don’t like the thought of a blue man staring at you (even when you try your hardest to look anywhere but back at him) it might not be the one for you.
UV paint and a set of drums are an iconic Blue Man Group stunt. Credit: Supplied
And there are moments where it all gets a bit too weird for my tastes, like when an entire segment is made from the sound of them stuffing Cap’n Crunch cereal into their mouths or whipping neon aerials around.
It’s impressive but it doesn’t actually SOUND good. (See also: beatboxing. Yes it’s very impressive that you can make a trumpet noise at the same time as drumming with your lips but shall we just not).
Still, with 37 years of sell-out success across the planet, The Blue Man Group is a creative and entertaining way to spend an evening.
And honestly, everyone should see this legendary piece of live entertainment at least once.
The Blue Man Group Bluevolution World Tour is on at The Lowry until Sunday 6 October – get your tickets HERE.
The most raucous retelling of Arthurian legends – King Arthur at The Lowry | Review
Danny Jones
There’s something very alluring about going into a show without knowing anything about it beyond what you can cobble together from the name but, we have to say, we had such a good time watching King Arthur at The Lowry in Salford we simply had to clue you in.
Like us, you can probably have a stab at what this one is about: the tale of King Arthur (sort of), his Knights of the Roundtable and the famous legends that have been retold for centuries – just not like this.
This comedic chronicling of Camelot and the character studies that lie within it as a much-loved fantasy world does more than just play with the legend, it sarcastically subverts things in an intentionally meta manner, not just breaking the fourth wall but more like stumbling through it with a perfect pratfall.
Put simply, it’s rambunctious, rude, just the right amount of camp with plenty of slapstick and it might be the most outright fun we’ve had at the theatre in ages. It’s certainly the most we’ve laughed.
A taster of what to expect from King Arthur at The Lowry, Salford Quays.
Perhaps one of the first things that we must praise is the pacing and one-upmanship that goes into this show. We struggle to think of a single other production that manages to get increasingly funnier as it goes on but these lot manage it somehow.
And that’s quite the statement when you take into account the opening scene – we daren’t spoil a thing but let’s just say they set the bar pretty high for themselves.
Created by the Exter-based Le Navet Bete theatre company, along with help from one of the country’s best comedy writers and directors, John Nicholson, they’re known for similarly humorous twists on tried and tested tales like Dracula, The Three Musketeers and Treasure Island.
Put it this way, we’re honestly gutted that this is our first taste of their take on classic stories and sincerely hope they’ll be bringing back these other shows to Salford Quays.
Each one of the main characters – plural being very much the operative phrase here – Osbert (Nick Bunt), Edgar (Al Dunn) and Dave have countless moments to shine in the spotlight and deliver plenty of childish punchlines, but a special shout-out has to go to Matt Freeman (Dave), who was nothing short of electric.
Credit: Press Images (supplied via The Lowry)
The show is filled with plenty of physical comedy and genuinely impressive feats of athleticism at times, so much so that the non-stop energy has to be applauded, and that aspect of the performance is very much typified by Freeman, a.k.a. ‘Dave the Rave’.
As the cast very much enjoys toying with, the multi-roling that a trio having to play several characters isn’t so much restrictive as it is freeing in this show, with each Arthurian figure presenting a new opportunity to be funny in a different way, and he grabs each one firmly with both hands.
His Lady Guinevere is quite frankly one of the funniest parts in the entire show and having her talk like some twisted, medieval version of Nigella Lawson meets a TOWIE star in an overly saucy M&S advert was genuinely side-splitting. But this doesn’t even come close to scratching the surface.
Be it throwing his large frame around like an excited toddler, playing the dim role to perfection, or switching to yet another regional dialect – a chance to explore even more of the breadth behind being ‘British’ in the process – his actual strength pales in comparison to his strength in sheer versatility.
Speaking of accents, it’s not all about ‘The Big D’ though; one of the best running gags which stretched wafer-thin to the point of everything almost coming part is Al Dunn’s lack of mastery when it comes to sounding French, Scottish or like he’s even trying to an accurate impersonation – because he’s not.
In fact, at what point he simply turned to the crowd and asked, “What that too much?”, which got one of the biggest laughs of the night.
(Credit: Supplied)
To tell the truth, it was these looser moments that were among some of the best. There were multiple occasions in which we genuinely couldn’t tell whether or not the actors had broken character, were simply cracking up or had downright lost their place – that’s how good they are at the nonsense of it all.
And there was no shortage of light and unserious spells, naturally; there was a good level of interaction and crowd participation too, without it ever feeling like the audience felt pressured into giving a forced response or customary chuckle. Give anyone a chance to throw stuff on stage and you’re onto a winner.
One of the high points of the entire evening was when a little kid was overcome with a case of not just a laughing fit but that pure, uncontrollable cackling that only a child can truly muster. It was almost as if he’d suddenly discovered his love of the art form and, infectiously, led everyone else to rediscover theirs.
It was as close to capturing that simple joy of being a pantomime when you were little and being so consumed with laughter that you suddenly suspended all disbelief as you could ask for from a largely adult crowd, though this show is definitely one that works for all age groups.
Whether it be the puns and Pixar-esque sly nods to the grown-ups, the countless bait-and-switch jokes where the lead is often so buried that the punchline comes much later than you’re expecting or is repeated to the point of insanity, or the big, broad, musical segments, the run the whole gamut.
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Your belly doesn’t even get a breather in the transitions or during the interval, as purposefully over-exaggerated montages are used to show the passing of time and even Medieval-style Bardcore versions of pop songs like Hot In Herre by Nelly or Moves Like Jagger play during the breaks.
The contemporary language and poking fun at every generation helps it feel really universal too and considering they’ve only got a small stage, they make full use of the set in as far as they can – but it’s all about those performances from La Navet Bete.
Lastly, there’s also just an unapologetic sense of play about King Arthur from start to finish and it really does love up to the tagline, ‘A Legendary Comedy’. It’s the most raucous retelling of otherwise revered tales that reclaim the ridiculousness of panto and reminds you how wonderfully daft theatre can be.
There are still tickets left for the remaining King Arthur shows at The Lowry in MediaCity UK and we sincerely hope you find time to see them before they go.
To put it in one word, King Arthur: A Legendary Comedy at The Lowry, Salford is a riot.