My round trip August 2011-part 3-The Eden Project and Labyrinth

After disembarking at Fishguard I'm heading to Cheltenham for the night.

It's quite a long run,and I take a few hours out to visit my brother and sister in law in South Wales.

It's great to catch up on family news and after a lovely dinner I'm back on the road for the run up the M4 and M5.

A couple of drinks with the gang ends a long day.

Thursday the 11th of August and me and my youngest are back on the road to Cornwall.It's a pleasant enough journey.(The return wasn't so good,trust me to pick Saturday.)

Just before Bodmin we looked around a little village called Blisland.Pictures from there and the coastal village of Mevagissy will be the next post.

I'll be spending my two nights here in the Circus caravan camp.My youngest's partner is the lead musician on this tour of the Nofitstate circus ,remember my post from Edinburgh last year.

As well as Edinburgh they've had trips to Brussels and Montreal for performances.It's seasonal over the spring and summer months.This is a great setting for the whole of August.

The sound engineer for Labyrinth,Mr Pete Storer has kindly allowed me the use of this caravan for my stay.It's kitted out with turntables,tape decks, tons of music and of course a bed.

Cheers Pete,it was lovely to meet you,Katie and your oh so bonnie wee lassies.

A look around the Eden Project is the first priority and here's the first view I get of this enterprise.
Click here for their home page. Eden Project

It looks quite stunning as we walk down from the camp.It's locations is a disused clay mine.

The closer we get the bigger everything becomes.

In the foreground is the big top where Labyrinth will be performed.

Click on the map for full size

The area linking the two indoor 'Biomes' has a grass roof with these two cows on top. 

The Eden project is a social and environmental experiment and so green issues are topical.

WEEE man above is made from 3.3 tonnes of  Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Weee)

which is thrown away by the average person in the U.K in their lifetime.

  

I don't think this is a real bee.

There's no way I'll be able to look around here in a couple of days.I'd suggest a week and you'd be getting to know the place.

There's colour everywhere.

The visitors centre is your first stop and a coloured wristband identifies your entry to Labyrinth

There's so much happening it's difficult to take it all in.The food is locally sourced wherever possible.The way the system works (top right),you help yourself to what you want,then at the check out you tell them what you had.Could that be open to abuse or are there cameras watching ?

Now we're going into the largest biome.

It's warm and tropical in here.The plants wouldn't grow otherwise.Doh!

The Rainforest Biome is the larger of Eden's two covered biomes. 100 meters wide, 200 metres long and 55 metres high, with an area of 15,590 square metres, it is the world's biggest greenhouse. The Rainforest Biome contains tropical plants such as banana trees, coffee, rubber and giant bamboo. The other biomes are the smaller Mediterranean Biome and the Outdoor Biome.


I'm stifling as we move towards the Mediterranean Biome.
The pre-show of Labyrinth is about to begin with something happening in all the Biomes.
Our coloured wristbands are for the Mediterranean Biome.

Could be fun.

Well, we know this musician.He's one of the the reasons I'm here.Have a look at Chris's Myspace here.
Chris Cundy

And the show begins.

We the audience have to follow the acts,so as well as in the diome,we watch the performances in one of the outer cafes and the outside gardens.

The pre-show continues until almost dusk,then we've a half hour break until we move into the big top.

Many of the acts I'd seen last year,but there were quite a few new ones.
2010 Edinburgh Post

The viewing situation was the same as last year in that the audience moved around with the acts.
Most of the pictures I took didn't come out because of the no flash photography rule.I'll finish this post with those pictures I feel I can post.

Once again I've been enthralled by the fast moving spectacle that is the troupe of artistes of nofitstate circus. 

I'm now on first name terms with some of them and on my last night I joined a celebration in the marquee that went on till the early hours of the morning.

Here's what the press have said.

Praise for the Labyrinth show at Eden:

• '...humour, magic and brilliance streak this show like lightning...'
  The Independent
• 'Gymnastic feats that make you gasp... a saucy melange of tightrope walks and acrobatics amid Eden's Biomes...The Eden Project is certainly celebrating its tenth birthday in style.'
  The Telegraph
• Watch the Guardian's audio slideshow about Labyrinth.
• '...a stunning final performance in the main arena - a perfect end to Company's Cornwall trip!'
  Company
• 'Sensual, beautiful'
  The Stage
• 'A stunning, awe-inspiring show quite unlike anything you will have seen before... a unique show perfectly matched by its unique setting.'
  Cornish Guardian
• 'Don't miss this show - it's phenomenal.'
  Western Morning News
• 'With tightwire acts, ethereal beauty Shaena Brandel on aerial hoop leading to an incendiary finale, hand balancing, acrobatic bicycle work and even a wall of bungeeing... this is a most extraordinary show.'
  The Cornishman

Praise for previous shows by NoFit State Circus:

• ‘The future of British circus…Cirque du Soleil without the Disney and the disinfectant…an invigorating [four star] performance to leave audiences both shaken and stirred.’
  The Guardian
• ‘An avidly entertaining and tumultuous new production’
  The Times
• 'It's jaw-dropping'
  The Independent
• ‘Less of a circus more a parallel universe’
  Sunday Herald
• ‘A no-holds-barred [five star] show, fusing circus, dance, music, theatre and audio-visual, all wrapped up in a spectacular silver tent.’
  Metro
• ‘One of the most shake-your-head-in-disbelief beautiful things I have ever seen. And one of the most soulful.’
  The Scotsman

I agree with all these reviews.

Nofitstate Circus-tabú-at the Edinburgh Fringe 2010

Well here we are.I've not been here long,but I've been lucky to have been introduced to a few of the performers.What a friendly troupe they are.
This is the nofitstate circus performing at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Nofit State Circus,was established in Cardiff in 1986,and is funded by the Arts Council of Wales.
Since I'm connected to a member of the cast,they'll let me take pictures.
(I wasn't allowed to use my flash,so the majority of pictures I took were just blurry unrecognisable images.Below are those that came out OK..ish)
They're ready in the shop,the popcorn's popping and the riggers are in position.This is known as a 'Promenade' show,which means the audience are mobile and can be moved.
What's a girl like you doing on a rig like this ?
There are no backroom boys or girls here.Everyone is an important and integral part of the show.
I've been looking on the net for reviews of the show,and there are quite a few,so I'll be quoting some from here on in.
We're crowded into the centre of the big top,where both sides are covered with sheets and the first things we see are silhouettes.

From The Telegraph by By Daisy Bowie-Sell.
When you first walk into the tent you feel slightly claustrophobic as two large squares of the stage are cornered off by hanging white sheets. It’s difficult to know quite where to stand or where to look and incomprehensible shouts are heard from each side of the tent as the performers goad each other on. Then suddenly the sheets fall and disappear to reveal an army of acrobats, hanging in mid-air.
After the initial flying and tumbling about of the whole troupe,the show settles down a little,although there's always something happening around the peripherals.

The music is phenomenal.It's so completely attuned to whats happening around,it's hard to believe the perfect timing isn't recorded music that's been rehearsed to over and over.
As well as aerial acts there's plenty happening at ground level.
Howie who features in the above collage is as large as life throughout the show.When I spoke to him I was convinced he was Italian or Spanish till he told me otherwise.It turns out he's a Yorkshireman who's various talents include forklift driving,hula hooping and making tea.His aim is to do all three simultaneously.

As I said earlier the majority of my pictures were too blurred to publish,so none of the real acrobatics came out.

This is Foucauld on the Chinese Pole.While the pole goes rapidly upwards he drops rapidly downwards.He's bound to hit the floor you're thinking,but somehow miraculously has a little bit of pole left to cling to.
Howie and Marcella.

Lyn Gardner of the Guardian.
A young woman appears to have a nervous breakdown on a trapeze, but eventually swings wildly through the air; a man falls down a rope to what appears to be certain death, but is actually sensuous abandon; a woman teeters across a tightrope in high heels, an act of absurd optimism in a cruel world.
A few times during the show the whole troupe seemed to be performing.Here the two female artistes involved the audience by pretending to fall towards them.
Lyn Gardner of the Guardian.
There are moments of exquisite pleasure. There's an erotic aerial act that is so tender and thrilling, it is like watching the physical manifestation of orgasm; a trampoline/trapeze piece that so incorporates failure it becomes a metaphor for life itself; a woman cocooned in a shower as the rain comes down. There are moments as thrilling as anything by Argentine circus pioneers De la Guarda, and watching this show makes you tingle with a sense of being alive. If I were 20 years younger, I would sign up for trapeze lessons immediately.
This was a musical journey.
Another spectacle involving the whole troupe.You could swear there'd be a collision,but with split second immaculate timing they pull it off with ease.
Specialist Hula Hooping.
This part is like a painting coming to life as the characters on the canvas move around.
Marcella is Italian and an acclaimed clown.
Here on the trapeze she proves she's also an accomplished acrobat.

Lyn Gardner of the Guardian.
With Tabu, UK circus grows up. It's the follow-up show from the Wales-based NoFit State Circus, whose Immortal, from 2004, was a real breakthrough. Inspired by Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, Tabu takes the theme of fear and anxiety and turns it into an achingly beautiful two hours of circus performance, in which idea and form seem perfectly matched.
Coming towards the end of the show we're treated to some fireworks.
All the members of the cast take a bow in turn as the spotlight falls on them.
It's been a brilliant night.

I get to socialise with the cast after the show.
Me and Chris are pictured with Tania above left and right with my bonnie lassie.

I can't remember everyone I met,so I've copied the names of all the company from their own website.
Thank you nofitstate,it was a pleasure.


NoFit State Circus is an ensemble based Circus with a cast of home grown and international peformers. This year many of the NoFit State family are on tour again, but as always we have a few new faces who bring with them new skills and surprises. This year we have performers and crew from Wales, Italy, Argentina, Australlia, Mexico, France, Finland, Scotland, England and Ireland.

Company 2010
Artistic Director tabú project - Firenza Guidi
Producer and Tour Manager- Tom Rack
Co Producer- Ali Williams
Operations Manager - Tim Adam
Assistant Producer - Zoe Munn
Executive Director – Alison Woods
Administrator - Leath Bradley

Creative Team -
Firenza Guidi, Ali Williams, Tom Rack
Director & Writer - Firenza Guidi
Composer & Musical Director - Peter Reynolds
Design team - Tom Rack, Firenza Guidi, Barnz, Rhiannon Matthews
Costume Design - The Ugly Sister
Original Lighting Design concept - Aðalsteinn Stefánsson
Video makers - Chris Nurse, Lissy Moore
Set Construction - Tarn Aitken, Tanc, Iolo lavender, Spike

Cast
Foucauld Falguerolles
Tania Cervantes Chamorro
Adie Delaney
Petri Ekqvist
Vanina Fandino
Natalia Fandino
Marco Fiera
Kadja Karjalainen
Marcella Manzilli
Tanwen Watson
Howard Morley
Simone Riccio
Gareth Jones ( Musician)
Dylan Leonard ( Musician)
Chris Cundy ( Musician)
Andy Moore ( Musician)

Crew
Stage Manager - Helen Fagelman
Technical Director - Chris Hills
Tent Master - Howard Morley
Lighting Technician – Leif Le Page
AV Design/Technician – Lissy Moore
Sound Engineer - Pete Storer
Wardrobe – Frances Aitken
Head Rigger – Tarn Aitken
Second Rigger – Sandro Spanu
Bar Manager/Crew – Dave Rook
Catering - Alastair Miller
Physiotherapist - Joni Anderson
Crew - Rozie Boulter
Crew - Will Flay
Crew - Esther Baum