Once in a while a show is so magical, so out of this world that it is worth crossing borders to see it. Sebastiano Toma’s Little Big World - part of Rotterdam’s third Circusstad Festival - is just that.
It assaults the senses with a seamless blend of circus skills, song, dance, film and Mark Chaet’s evocative music, which he plays live onstage with five other musicians. Five circus artists and the slinky songstress Momo Kohlschmidt flesh out the action in both the ‘big’ onstage world and the ‘little’ one on a second tiny set, where, in full view, they manipulate a variety of props in front of a video camera, the images then providing a living backdrop. Most arresting are two blue tassels wafted in a water-filled aquarium that become huge waving fronds, or the scenes on mobile-phone screens that bring life to the darkened windows of a miniature town.Britain’s ‘Lucky’ Franco plays the sultry and voluptuous contortionist whose signature move of running rings round her own body is extraordinary, and the duos are also exceptional. The interplay between ball juggler Stefan Sing and wisp of a ballerina/rhythmic gymnast Cristiana Casadio is mesmerising, while hand-to-hand pair Kati & Philipp astound everyone with their grace and strength, before amazing them again on silks, backed by a projection of sand painter Anna Prinz’s exotic night sky. Little Big World has no weak links. It is an exquisite masterpiece of Toma’s soaring imagination, and like a spellbinding dream holds you in its enticing embrace.
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PRESS
ENSEMBLE:
STEFAN SING JUGGLING/DANCE
CRISTIANA CASADIO DANCE
ROSA TYYSKÄ CRY/DANCE
DUO DINH & ANH HAND TO HAND/DANCE
LEILANI FRANCO CONTORTION/DANCE
MOMO KOHLSCHMIDT VOICE/LYRICS
MARK CHAET VIOLIN
GIORGIO RADOJA GRANDPIANO
IGOR SPALLATI DOUBLE BASS
PAWEL KUTERBACH CLARINET & BASS CLARINET
DALAI THEOFILOPOULOU CELLO
PRODUCTION:
SEBASTIANO TOMA IDEA, SET DESIGN, DIRECTING & PRODUCTION
MARK CHAET MUSIC COMPOSITION
SOFIA SPYRATOU CHOREOGRAPHY
FRIEDERIKE KRAHL ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
CITRONELLA ANTHOLZ LIGHT DESIGN
LORENZO TOMA PROPS CONSTRUCTION
JULIUS VOGELMANN PROPS CONSTRUCTION
PEGAH GHALAMBOR POP UP BOOK