To mark the 20th anniversary of Brighton Fringe, there’s a new venue in town. Circus Yard, located at Brighton’s The Level, 15 minutes from the train station, features two big tops (called Big Puck and Little Puck) and a festival bar open to all – with or without circus tickets. Throughout the month of May, Circus Yard is home to 32 audacious, bold, and exciting circus, burlesque and cabaret shows, both local and global.
Hosts and curators, Revel Puck Circus, the award-winning, East London-based company, have hand-picked a cracking line-up that includes 29 visiting shows and many exciting new voices in performance. Known for their community-led spirit, bold physicality and energetic performances, Revel Puck Circus offers something for all the family, as well as some saucy offerings best suited for 16+ audiences.
For anyone who feels circuses to be a bit tawdry and perhaps has memories of sad animals being subjugated for human entertainment, it’s time to rethink what circus is. The use of wild animals in circuses in England was outlawed in 2020, which means no more undignified spectacles of sea lions and elephants: Instead, an unfettered panoply of human skill, endurance, and visual spectacle.
The Nose Dive Assembly is one of three Revel Puck Circus in-house produced shows. As well as high wire walkers and teeter boarders, this show features the only female Wheel of Death duo in the country. The Ruckus, which includes Arielle Lauzon as Nancy and Thorne Bailey, combines dazzling acrobatics with surreal spectacle and giant balloons. Think Barbapapa on acid. The Ugly Duckling, a hit at Revel Puck Circus’s Winter Festival in Walthamstow, is back to delight more audiences and reimagines this Hans Christian Anderson children’s classic to celebrate difference and inclusion.
“Circus for everyone from everywhere” is the Revel Puck Circus motto and this is reflected in the line-up that includes many non-binary and trans performers including Queer as F*ck Cabaret, drag king, Magic Dyke and United Queendom. Anchored in Air, a breathtaking aerial theatre production, is created by disabled and non-disabled performers. Other acts bring social commentary to their acts, like traSH, which explores fast fashion, sustainability, and consumer culture. The Rola Circus by Luminous Productions features some mesmerising hula hoop control – the human body transformed into a 1970s slinky – while She’s Behind You features the irrepressible Miss Lucinda B. Hind, an outrageous drag act, who honours an array of Hollywood icons including Marilyn Monroe. In Scratch That Cabaret, students from the National Centre of Circus Arts flex muscles with some high-energy circus cabaret.
With such a broad and enticing programme, there’s something to suit all tastes and ages at Revel Puck Circus who have transformed this physical forum into a dynamic, modern space that speaks to freedom and boundless brilliance. The old hierarchies and gender stereotypes that featured barking ringmasters and animal tamers, whips in hand, are dead as dodos, and instead, words like ‘mutual trust’ and ‘collective responsibility’ form the basis of many co-created performances that manage to challenge and question, as well as thrill, entertain and delight. This joyful addition to the 20th Brighton Fringe, a fluid, experimental, inclusive playground, will make it one to remember.
Runs until 1 June 2025
