Circus / Reviews
Bristol Circus City review: Armour, Arnolfini – ‘A deeply moving exploration of masculinity and sensuality’
The UK’s largest international festival of contemporary circus has returned to Bristol. Circus City runs from the 9th until the 30th of October, offering 22 performances of 12 productions. The festival’s theme, Bodies of Care, could just as easily have been the title of yesterday evening’s work, Armour, created by Arno Ferrera and Gilles Polet.
Dressed as wrestlers, three acrobats (Arno Ferrera, Gilles Polet and Jean-Daniel Broussé) explore masculinity and sensuality in a largely non-verbal display of tenderness and strength.
I found the show deeply moving. The novelty of seeing a male body cradled and held on stage was more affecting than I had anticipated.
is needed now More than ever
Through a kind of iterative play, the performers collide and rebound off each other’s bodies, leveraging aggression and its inherent closeness and passion to display care and fragility.
Silhouetted by stark lighting, the wrestlers pose independently before conducting a series of double-leg takedowns and grappling exchanges. Staged in the round and at floor-level, we the audience feel very close to each grunt and each drop of sweat.
Arno Ferrera, Gilles Polet and Jean-Daniel Broussé in Armour – part of the 2025 Bristol Circus City programme
For all its exceptional physicality, the show wouldn’t be a show without the other kind of movement: dramatic movement. The dynamic between the three evolves into something more overtly sensual, as the men undress and explore more totally each other’s bodies. These moments feel especially gentle.
Armour boldly interrogates masculinity, is willing to lean into its hardness and softness and finds its most interesting moments within their interplay.
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Circus City 2025: Bodies of Care is at multiple venues on October 9-30. For information and tickets to individual shows as well as festival passes, visit www.bristolcircuscity.com.
All photos: Florian Hetz
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