Packing dozens of companies into a five-day festival, Trapezi is a huge indoor and outdoor contemporary circus festival in Reus, in Catalan Spain. Sideshow hasn’t visited but has heard many times from many people that it’s sort of the first summer festival, with lots going on outdoors in (usually) glorious weather. There are no shows in the mornings and quite a lot of late night cabarets, so everyone stays up; it’s one of those festivals where the entire industry comes together.
In the 2011 line-up Sideshow is pleased to see Barolosolo’s Île O, a charming and simple and quite weird clown two-hander that had a brief development residency at the Village de Cirque, plus L’Attraction Céleste's Bibeu et Humphrey’s, another clown piece which Sideshow saw at Festival Circa in Auch last year, and which is straighter and more traditional than Île O but something of a masterclass for a certain style of circus clowning. Also in the programme Ockham’s Razor represent the UK with their large-scale utilitarian circus drama The Mill; Belgian company Théâtre d'un jour perform their piece L'Enfant Qui, a quietly insistent work based on the early life, and constant illness, of the sculptor Patrick Masset; and Circo Aereo present Une séance peu ordinaire, a miniaturist solo by Jani Nuutinen in the style of his earlier piece Un cirque plus juste. There’s a lot more – a lot more – so check the website for full listings.