Review: Revel Puck Circus – ‘The most fun you’ll have inside a big top’

How many circus performers can balance on a big wooden board atop a giant tyre?

Find out the answer to this and so much more at Revel Puck’s Wing Scuffle Spectacular, a night of comedic brilliance, extraordinary skill and just good, uplifting fun.

It’s around 6.20pm on Thursday evening and the sweet scent of fresh candyfloss fills the bar tent, a space with a relaxed DIY feel where art on display is by Imayla youth groups, based just up the road in St Paul’s Learning Centre, and St Werburgh’s City Farm.

Outside, people armed with popcorn and drinks are making their way over the uneven ground of the site just by the M32 in St Paul’s into the warmth of the big top.

“Wahoo, I’m excited,” exclaims one of the performers as they work to usher audience members inside for what will be the first show of 2022 for the independent London-based circus company.

As the final people take their seats around the centre stage, the performers hurry over from checking tickets and serving snacks to get on with the show.

It’s half an hour or so after the performance was scheduled to start by the time everyone is served and seated but any misgivings about punctuality are soon forgotten as the show begins with a neatly-executed modern-day mousetrap sequence involving a series of doors and a lion on remote control wheels. Following this, the Revel Puck crew burst into the big top with a comedic dance routine to Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing.

Next comes a beautifully-choreographed piece involving a swinging chainsaw on a rope that kicked off a show bursting with energy. There are incredible feats with hoops, a mesmerising aerial strap display, dazzling trapeze, seesaw acrobatics and a complex, comedic love affair between a unicycling clown and a lion that’s genuinely moving at times.

The Wing Scuffle Spectacular is bursting with joyful exuberance

Billed as ‘a celebration of fear’, the Wing Scuffle Spectacular undoubtedly features some feats accomplished with great skill but what really sets it apart is the joyful exuberance that shines through from start to finish.

Rather than pretend fear doesn’t exist, Revel Pucks embrace and celebrate their ability to confront it with ridicule, as beautifully demonstrated at the start of the seesaw sequence with a prolonged build-up that got many a fearless child in the audience screaming at the performer to jump off the high ledge.

Mocking the title of their own show the Revel Puck commentary suggests if they wanted to scare people, they could have just called it the “energy price crisis of 2022”.

Many of the props look homemade, the performers’ vibrant 90s-style outfits favour comfort over glitz and everyone mucks in to put on a down-to-earth show that shines out, even in a city renowned for its circus heritage.

As they all come together for the epic on-tyre balancing act near the end of the performances, the joy is evident in each member of the circus as they egg each other on and ultimately smash their first show of the year and their Bristol debut.

How many circus performers can balance on a big wooden board atop a giant tyre?

The Revel Puck circus will be on the Dove Street site until April 24. Don’t miss the chance to see their show – it’s the most fun you’ll have in a big top.

The Wing Scuffle Spectacular show is on in Bristol until April 24, with tickets available via www.revelpuckcircus.com.

The Revel Puck Circus crew smashed their first show of the year and their Bristol debut

All photos: By Tekla 

Read more: Double bill of thrills comes to Revel Puck Circus

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