Giffords Circus: Laguna Bay review – cheeky, magical and bucketfuls of fun

The Guardian

6 hours ago

The celebrations kick off in a low-key fashion. It's been 25 years of Giffords Circus and Tweedy the Clown is larking about with a deck chair. It's all very silly and very British; an unassuming vaudeville act that takes great skill but mainly just feels full of joy. My four-and-a-half-year-old son, Benji, is up way past his bedtime but is having a ball watching a show that celebrates the tremendous skill of Giffords' performers – but also their passion and commitment, which light up Laguna Bay with a special kind of warmth and magic.
A feeling of family runs through all Giffords productions. Lots of the performers are related and most have been working in circus their whole lives. The show is also performed in memory of founder Nell Gifford, which imbues everything with a delicate sort of tenderness. The Ethio-Salem Troupe have been with Giffords Circus from the beginning and, in costumes that explode with colour, they bounce wildly about the circus tent. First they throw skittles. Then they throw themselves. Later they'll jump through hoops and, finally, through fire. All of it feels effortless, somehow very human and full of love.
Ahead of the show, Benji and I read the programme notes and come across Pablo and Vickki Garcia's act, A Sensation in the Sky. I warn Benji there won't be an actual plane. Same goes for Daniela Muñoz Landestoy andNoémi Novákovics's hair-hanging act. They may not actually be hanging from their hair. But I'm wrong. The Garcias dangle from a plane the couple made themselves. At one point, Vickki Garcia seems to be holding on to the plane – and spinning wildly – with just her mouth. The hair hangers really do dangle from their hair. Benji cannot believe what he is seeing.
There's so much more, in a night crafted with precision and ease by director Cal McCrystal and choreographer Kate Smyth. The show's loose theme is 50s America, so there's a bubblegum aesthetic to proceedings and a relaxed and romantic feel to the live onstage music. Nothing seems like hard work – even when aerial artist Randy Forgione Vega is soaring overhead ('He's like Iron Man,' cries Benji) or the Garcia brothers (sons of Pablo and Vickki) are contorting their bodies in ways unimaginable, all while wearing silly pyjamas and cheeky smiles.
Tweedy the Clown has been with Giffords Circus for more than 20 years and is a constant presence on stage, playfully undermining the acts and keeping things light. The night's best skit doesn't involve high-wire stunts, dancing horses or dazzling magic. It features giant tubs of fake ice-cream and lashings of water (mostly splashed over the audience). Another highlight sees Tweedy pull a white ribbon out of his mouth. Over and over again. Benji shouts out gleefully: 'Will it go on for ever?' And if Benji had anything to do with it, that ribbon would just keep on spiralling, way past his bedtime and into his dreams.
At Chiswick House and Gardens, London, until 22 June. Then touring until 28 September.