Some jugglers compare the drop to death. Just as we couldn’t live if we constantly pondered our own mortality, so the juggler cannot be distracted by the fact that sooner or later they are going to drop what they are juggling. That inevitability is explored in this show by a trio of jugglers – Matt Pang, Arron Sparks and Jon Udry – who call themselves Circus Geeks.
They celebrate their obsession with a comic knowingness in which failure comes with a slap on the face from a wet fish, and relationships are apparently pushed to breaking point by repeated mistakes. They throw in some graphs to demonstrate both their prowess and shortcomings, along with a little potted history of juggling. They also offer a juggling lexicon (the Rocky is when you make a comeback and retrieve from an impossible situation), give us a taster of various tricks from old-school cigar box juggling to a turn involving chairs, and pay homage to the late Luke Wilson.
Of course, the entire thing is a metaphor, and a reminder that when you drop everything and fail, you simply have to pick it all up and carry on. There is a lot to like in this unassuming show – even if it doesn’t have the wow factor of most Udderbelly festival hits, or the artfulness of Gandini Juggling.
This is a young show, still in need of reshaping, rewriting, some attention to pacing and a far stronger directorial eye. It doesn’t have the courage of its own performance-lecture style convictions, and feels like a series of ideas that never quite form into a coherent whole. But Circus Geeks will yet learn how to keep all the theatrical balls in the air. I’ll happily be back to see them take that risk.
- At Udderbelly festival, Southbank Centre, London, until 21 June. Buy tickets at theguardianboxoffice.com or call 0330 333 6906.
