Gorilla Circus - Unity

An immersive aerial spectacular combining acrobatic performances, music and poetry with a political message highlighting the underserved in society.

UNITY is a reflection on community, an act of protest, a call for change and a dream for the future.

UNITY is a large-scale contemporary circus production that merges immersive theatre, circus and community stories in a powerful but intimate way. This aerial-spectacular features dance trapeze, wire walking and hair hanging accompanied by a poem that is adapted for each performance’s location.

Performers were accompanied by a ‘cast’ of mannequins who floating up from ground level represent a generation of underserved people.

For their performance at Hull's 2024 Freedom Festival, Gorilla Circus hosted workshops with local people to create a spoken word poem. The poem, written by Jay Mitra, with contributions from Nicola L Meekin, Elizabeth Holt, Chris Church, Daisy Broderick, Nick Wilson, and Thomas Gailums, was then transformed with the help of our Associate Artists, The Broken Orchestra, into a spoken audio played over the performance. 

The piece was an evocative, powerful declaration about Hull's place in history, its ties to local community and traditions, as well as its radical ideals that have spanned generations and alter how we feel about the city today, including its close connection to our original themes of freedom. The poem was titled 'A City of Contradictions', and elevated the high-wire, daring performance to give it cultural meaning in the city of Hull. 

Read the poem

 

“...POWERFUL POLITICAL THEATRE AND EXTRAORDINARILY SKILLED CIRCUS”

- Total Theatre Magazine

Gorilla Circus is a circus production company specialising in contemporary works with narratives on global issues, offering audiences the opportunity to interpret works in their own way and open up conversations.
Gorilla Circus’ shows centre around spectacular custom-built structures, accompanied by various extraordinarily skilled physical artists.
UNITY is a reflection on community, an act of protest, a call for change and a dream for the future; a large-scale, outdoor aerial production that merges immersive theatre, circus and community stories in a powerful but intimate way.
Set on an eye-catching custom structure, this spectacular aerial features aerial acrobatics, dance trapeze, wire walking and hair-hanging artists, all of which travel overhead accompanied by a ‘cast’ of mannequins, who float up from ground level to represent a generation of underserved people. The scale and height of the performances allow audiences to be close and in amongst the action.
In each location, a local poet is recruited to create a unique piece of text mixed into the existing music to create the soundtrack for the show.

The poem and show are divided into 3 sections:
The first section is focused on the past, what struggles have communities faced or overcome? Do people feel listened to?
What positive or negative outcomes have there been?
The second section is a call to action, what kind of society do we want to live in? What needs to change and how can we achieve it?
Finally, the third section focuses on the positivity if unified communities striving for a common goal, what makes people proud of their area? What is their vision for the future?

 

Supported by Arts Council England