A tightrope walker on Passeig de Gràcia is not something you see every day, but the stylized image of Nathan Paulin soaring through the skies, one step after another, in the heart of Barcelona symbolizes the importance that the circus genre is gaining It has been presumed dead several times but it has undergone a notable renovation in this 21st century, which makes it present, in its multiple forms –traditional and innovative–, in the cultural offer this summer.
The circus was born, according to the criteria we apply, in Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, the Middle Ages… but the form it took in the 19th century, with clowns, numbers with animals and their colorful tents, is already more similar to what it currently is. we understand as such. The advent of cinema, the world wars, the laws for the protection of animals or the recent pandemic caused premature obituaries to be written… but this dead man is very much alive, as could be verified last Saturday night, in Andorra la Vella, at the premiere of Festa, the new show by the reborn (it went bankrupt during the covid) Cirque du Soleil, an exclusive creation for the public in the principality – something the company has been doing for ten years now – and which involves 23 artists on stage and 49 technicians.
The first show here for Quebecers was free and in the open air. Things have become more sophisticated and, after the stage in which seated and standing tickets coexisted, today the 3,600 seats in the tent erected in the Prada Casadet car park are all seated. A daily performance, from Tuesday to Saturday, until July 30, the forecasts are (pas mal) to attract more than 80,000 spectators. The locations are sold individually or combined with other local attractions, such as the thermal waters of the Caldea mega-complex, one of the largest in Europe with its 6,000 square meters and whose privileged views of the mountains from the pools are beginning to be somewhat covered by the construction fever that invades the area.
Festa lasts one hour and takes place in the reception of a hotel (an Andorran place par excellence). Its common thread is the buttons that attend to the tourists who are registering. The concierge decides to throw a party and, of course, the entertainment team at this peculiar establishment – ??at times a cross between Wes Anderson and the Comediants – far exceeds the average quality of hotels of any category.
Along with the new numbers, a good part of the performances are a best of the company’s previous interventions in Andorra, which is why their execution is well shot, and includes heart-stopping acrobatics, executed with the characteristic elegance of the solar troupe, in addition to juggling, tightrope walkers, clowns –one of them takes a spectator to the cinema, in a hilarious and meritorious gag– and, of course, music sung live by prodigious voices.
Catalan is used not only in the title but throughout the show, where Spanish, French and English are also heard, although let’s not forget that this company often uses its particular language, cirquish, totally international, with sounds that are understandable even if they are not ascribe to any known language.
The circus offer is so wide this summer that it is necessary to select. Only in this Grec can you discover, among others, proposals such as L’absolu (from July 5 to 16), Leandro Mendoza (5 and 6), Maria Palma Borràs (5), Ramat Simfònic (from 6 to 8), Lady Panda (from 10 to 12), circusnext (11 and 12), La grUtesca (20 and 21), Circus Ronaldo (20 and 21), Yoann Bourgeois (22 and 23) or Joan Català (22 and 23), on stages like the Margarida Xirgu square, the Mercat de les Flors, the SAT! or the Joan Brossa and Joan Miró foundations.
And, for summer visitors, the Raluy historical circus will be in Platja d’Aro from August 2 to 12, and from August 16 to September 2 in Palafrugell, while the Raluy Legacy (they share the last name because the brothers separated in the 2016) performs in Cubelles (from July 7 to 16), in Cunit (from 20 to 30), in Calafell (from August 3 to 20) and in Vilanova i la Geltrú (from August 24 to September 3). There will also be circus at the CaixaForum Nights, the La Bisbal circus fair (from July 14 to 16), the Circdanya festival (July 29 and 30) and many other places.
The image of the tents camped in the summer resorts, common in the collective imagination, will be repeated this year. But the offer is becoming more sophisticated, hybridizing with disciplines such as dance or theater and expanding audiences.
