Creators: Roderick Morgan and Thomas Jancis
The fact that most VAULT Festival shows are under an hour is, admittedly, a big pull. What with there being near on 600 shows to choose from, it means you can afford to take some risks, see a variety of performances you know nothing about, and if they’re not to your taste, well, you’ve only lost an hour. Circus In a Bottle aims to beat out the succinct competition with an impressively meagre 25 minutes! But as alluring as this is in theory, it’s just not enough time to get anything going.
The audience is ushered into the intimate Void, a shipping container round the corner from the festival’s main venue, only to find the Barker unprepared, still lazing about in his longjohns. Of course, as soon as he realises this nonplussed gathering is his audience, he hops to attention, throwing on some threadbare trousers and guiding everyone to sit around a table and don a pair of AR glasses.
The main event is the Barker’s assistant, a little pink stickman who wanders round the table, performing tricks to compliment the Barker’s tales of the circus. The technology itself is interesting and an innovative way to pack as much in as possible in a very little venue. But watching a stickman feels a bit more like a demonstration for the glasses themselves than an especially exciting way to use them, and it ends up being more of a distraction from the story.
The plot is meandering and weighed down with too many details: The Barker is descended from a long line of circus performers, but he himself seems without skill. He talks about the various long-forgotten talents amongst which he grew, and the great almost-love of his life, who broke her back in a cannon-fire stunt gone awry. But it’s hard to keep focus, with multiple names being thrown out, tenuous links made, and the story loses its way almost as soon as it’s begun.
Creator and performer Thomas Jancis is a very endearing host, sweet and bumbling. In such a tight space, there’s really nowhere to hide, and he does well to engage his audience and keep them on side for the short time allotted.
However, it’s just not a completed show. Neither one thing nor another, the audience leaves feeling like they’ve indulged a lovely but slightly lost friend with their new project.
Runs until 4 March 2023
