Circus / Reviews
Bristol Circus City review: Revolutions per Minute, Bristol Beacon – ‘Physically impressive, but narratively confused’
From October 9-30, the UK’s largest international circus festival is running in Bristol. Circus City continued yesterday with Revolutions Per Minute, a production by Gorilla Circus.
The performance takes place on a treadmill, in profile, which moves at a walking pace as the performers move, dance and roller-skate on top of it.
Revolutions Per Minute challenges Britain’s colonial past and seeks to interrogate whether, as a country, we have ever truly reckoned with it.
is needed now More than ever
Spanning time and generations, we see the Windrush generation arriving in England and dealing with the ludicrous administration of immigration officials.
With infrequent voiceover to help contextualise the non-verbal work, the performance flips to contemporary England and into a breakdancing piece.
The production often lacks clarity. It finds itself torn between a narrative-driven piece of theatre and a performance of circus skills. Both the rhyming and metaphors in the voice-over could use some reworking.
The inclusion of Nina Simone’s Sinnerman makes for a great scene, and the visual of paper documents scattering across the treadmill is fantastic.
Although the show journeys towards a sense of optimism, it isn’t especially clear how or why that happens. We open, mulling on Britain’s colonial history, to find ourselves in a position of sudden optimism by the end of the work.
I think it’s very difficult to land shows like this, and perhaps this work needed a Dramaturg to help iron out the narrative beats of the piece. That said, the circus skills are profoundly impressive, and the performers are clearly extremely capable.
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: Gorilla Circus
Read next:
- Darryl Carrington’s award-winning non-verbal family show to feature at Circus City 2025
- Circus City sets £10,000 target to secure next ten years
- Circus City survey appeals to D/deaf individuals
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