How to describe No Fit State Circus’ new show Sabotage within the limits of my word limit?
It is theatre, it is circus, it is music, it is a supremely talented troupe of performers and creatives who make you marvel ‘what a piece of work is man’.
Sabotage encapsulates the joy and the pain of what it means to be human and both sides of that beauty. Every scene tells a story some poignant and heart tugging and some utterly joyful.
It is a visual and audio feast, and I left it full to bursting, my brain saturated by what I had just seen and heard.
Some standout images I have are a woman twirling in the air, suspended by just her hair; a beautiful man in a red skirt which becomes his vehicle into defying gravity; two men in black dresses on a journey hand in hand, a girl in white making hoops jump to her command.
Your list will probably be quite different, there is so much to see and so much talent and virtuosity on show.
And the music. Sabotage is accompanied by a live band of such virtuosity, which transitions seamlessly from one genre to the next and provides a perfect soundscape to the show.
It is not unusual to see a performer come straight off the stage and into the band to take up the microphone or an instrument, and there are times when a performer high in the air above the audience is also providing the music too.
Sabotage is Incredibly staged, using every part of the big top, from under the stage from where subterranean beings emerge to slide about, to the heights of the tent where jaw-dropping aerial feats are performed.
Even the set changes are a performance as are the cast members counterbalancing their colleagues in the air.
Sabotage is darker than its fore runner Lexicon. There are references to the tumultuous world we find ourselves in today, to conflict past and present, to the displacement of people and to our perilous relationship with our natural surroundings.
However, there is also the madcap exuberance of Lexicon encapsulated in frolicsome ensemble pieces and childlike joy in play, props and other people.
The show is performed by a multi-skilled cast of such talent and variety, when they come out for the final curtain call you expect there to be so many more of them; as each performer fills so many roles during the show.
When the lights came up at the end of the show and the first thing my tween, who lives phone in hand, said to me was ‘when are we coming again? Can we see it again this evening?’.
I would happily watch Sabotage again and again, knowing that each time I would see something new or read something more into the beautifully created vignettes.
We are so lucky to have something of this creative calibre in Pembrokeshire. If you haven’t been to see it, go and see Sabotage.
It would be self-sabotage to miss out.
No Fit State Circus’s Sabotage plays at Haverfordwest Showground until April 23, before going on to tour throughout Wales.
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