As we arrive at Preston Park in Brighton, we are greeted by the sight of a “mobile village” of trucks and trailers that surround the huge Big Top tent where this years production by the Moscow State Circus, 7 Zhelaniy (7 Wishes), is about to take place.
If evidence was needed to prove that circus is more popular now than it has been for many years, the sight of the huge queues waiting eagerly to enter the arena is enough. As we file in the smell of hot dogs, popcorn and candy floss fills the air and very quickly almost every available seat is taken.
Professor Wacko (Vladimir Georgievskiy) and a lady simply referred to as The Cleaner (Natalia Mezenleeva) are our hosts, and clowns, for the evening and, as well as providing the comic interludes while the super slick production crew set up the circus ring for the next artistes, they each get to have their own solo acts as well.
Ksenia Veslovskaya plays the girl who, as the original Russian story tells, is given 7 beautiful flowers, one flower for each wish she can make. Of course, most of her wishes are for herself but each wish helps to introduce the next circus act.
The acts themselves are the usual variety of jugglers, acrobats, contortionists and aerial artistes, but what makes this production so special is the new and innovative ways in which the acts are presented.
Instead of using a simple trampoline, After Dark sees a troupe in Venetian costume leaping and bouncing off a large inflatable “doughnut” and the Aerial Globes provide a very novel new way of taking the contortionists up high above the circus ring.
Quick Change is an act that does exactly what you would expect, with a dozen or more costume changes happening in very quick succession, and with split second timing, while Igor Slynka and Abuliaz Abdullaev support the amazing Roman Malykhin on a piece of apparatus called The Russian Bar so that he can spring high into the air and perform a series of amazing somersaults and breathtaking leaps in their act, The Three Chaps.
Juggling is given a new twist when performed while balancing on rolling oil drums and, at times, using lighted clubs in the dark, by the aptly named Barrel Jugglers and The Exhilarators bring a brand new “spin” to roller skating with neon coloured costumes, light-up skates and some truly amazing acrobatic displays.
Ruslan Faizulin performs the most dangerous act of the evening as he balances high above the ring on The Wheel, which is impressive enough even before he tries skipping and running around it blindfolded while the Leontiev Troupe do some amazing acrobatics on the Olympian Bars, while dressed in full Egyptian costume.
After all of her selfish wishes, the girl’s final wish is for a boy with an injured leg to be cured and, after the Professor grants her wish, the girl and boy fly high above the arena to perform the final aerial act while the rest of the cast soak up all of the, very well deserved, applause from the delighted crowd.
***** Five Stars