All the charm of the circus – with a twist

14 July 2011

“Ronaldo strips away all circus's spangles and cheesy smiles to reveal a tremulous ego and a delicately beating heart” - The Independent

The old-world romance of the circus is brought back to life for New Zealand International Arts Festival by three generations of Belgium’s extraordinary Ronaldo family.

All the nostalgia of sawdust and sequins, with a contemporary theatrical twist, is there in Circenses, staged in the intimate setting of their own Big Top on Wellington’s Waterfront.

One of Europe’s most exciting contemporary circus companies, Circus Ronaldo presents a show of two very different halves: for the act one, half the audience are treated to a vintage evening of traditional circus skills. The other half sit backstage, where they are privy to quite a different world.

Each half of the audience cannot see the other side of the stage, although they can hear intriguing, and often contradictory, sounds. At interval they change places – and have their curiosity satisfied. In the great circus tradition of curiosity and illusion, things in Circenses are not as they first appear. As the troupe says: “Those who sat around the ring now discover the darker side of the circus... In short, everything that is not on the poster.’’

The Ronaldo family trace their circus lineage back to the early 1900s, when one of their descendants ran away from home at 15 to join the circus. He eventually married into a theatrical family – and Ronaldo’s unique mix of circus and theatre was born.

For further information, visit www.festival.co.nz

ENDS

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