As you enter the theatre you can’t help but notice the giant sweeping piece of silk held up by helium balloons, shaped in a crescent across the stage. We are later told that it represents everything, this represents the Earth.
Gaia Global Circus is the brain child of French sociologist and Philosopher Bruno Latour. Latour is a former visiting lecturer at UCSD, LSE and Harvard and he has founded a masters programme in Experimentation in Arts and Politics at Po Paris. This production is to test his research question- Can people feel an emotional response to global warming? He uses 4 actors in several varying vignettes to explore this question. These vignettes range from parodying political conferences to using pre-exsisting stories such as Noah’s Arc to discuss the issues
The whole piece has a casual sense of wit about it. Some moments are incredibly funny, in particular the section when a Beatles song is described to us as if we had not heard it before, and also at a conference where we are encouraged to speed up global warming so we can start finding the solution more quickly. The sign language interpreter slowly builds from technically correct sign language to creating a new, rude and very literal sequence of gestures. The set gives the show a sense of grandeur that the relaxed style of performance sometimes fails to do. Overall the show lacks urgency as the performers seem to have accepted that the human race is already completely screwed. Often this works, creating comedy and amusing situations but it leaves me feeling puzzled about how this work can create change in reality. However, there is no doubt that this is an intelligent piece of theatre that is highly engaging and thought provoking . 4/5
Review written by Lucy Bishop.
Gaia Global Circus was shown at the Bloomsbury Theatre on Saturday 14th February 2015. For more information on future productions at the theatre, visit here…
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