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Angus MacKechnie, Jacksons Lane’s Creative Director, reports from a visit to the Circusstad Festival in Rotterdam

Rotterdam in festival mode mostly involved moving quickly between venues, grabbing quick coffees en route and engaging with a fantastically varied programme of circus work; diverse in scale, nationality, intention and discipline.

I was there for the Circusstad Festival and the Dutch Circus Showcase: a few days of presentations, works-in-progress and finished performances across the city. My notebook is full of practical observations, questions and hasty reminders-to-self rather than staggering conclusions.

The artist pitches were well presented, very speedy and a great chance to engage with a number of companies and with new work or ideas that are not fully settled.

Alice Davies presented a sustained trapeze project built around endurance and ageing which she plans to repeat until she is in her sixties; slow, stripped-back and physically direct. The emphasis seemed less on virtuosity than duration and repetition. Jakob Jacobson’s Insomnia centred around vertical rope and exhaustion with a tempo that apparently slowed as the piece progressed. Nick van der Heyden introduced his work Oblivious, from the House of Circus – a fusion of drag and circus where nothing is what it seems.

Then in the performance settings, the tone shifts…

Gravity & Other Myths’ The Mirror at the Oude Luxor was enormous by comparison: LED walls, live cameras, pop and rock and chanson, human towers and bodies constantly appearing and disappearing through curtains and screens. The company describe it as a search for authenticity, though what stayed with me more was the utter density of the stage imagery and the physical confidence of the performers.

Michael Zandl’s FOOD was much stranger, darker and funnier than I expected. It is a piece exploring excess and consumption through acrobatics, illusion and object manipulation. The stage tricks were constantly surprising and unexpected: fridges opening unexpectedly, bodies folding into strange shapes, food multiplying, scenes drifting from deadpan comedy into something more uncomfortable; humorous and / or shocking in equal measure. It’s headed to London at the Southbank Centre in early 2027.

Vrij (Free) by Helena & Goos sat somewhere between clowning, mime, silent film and live foley performance. Two characters repeatedly replayed the same fragment of daily life while musicians created sound effects live beside them. I admired the construction of the show, both physically and creatively; clever, carefully made and the black-and-white silent film aesthetic was beautifully handled. The surprise finale was breath-taking.

In Difference, a cyr wheel duet by Jef Everaert & Marica Marinoni, used the apparatus in genuinely inventive ways, balancing and rolling across bodies rather than simply demonstrating technique. Tall Tales Company’s Droplines treated juggling patterns almost like relationship dynamics: rhythm shifting into conflict, negotiation and power play. Another highlight was The Idle Hour by Motus Murmuri, a two-man show on a dramatic rotating structure. As well as some wonderful imagery, the two performers running on the wheel must have exceeded their daily steps target in a single show.

Between all of this there were the conversations over coffee, outdoor installations, youth circus presentations and an interesting professional session on wellbeing within the circus sector. Plenty of inspiration and, hopefully, a few shows to come to JL in the near future… watch this space.

Angus MacKechnie | Creative Director | Jacksons Lane