Circus : Smashed

With Smashed, the British company Gandini Juggling shatters the apples and codes of juggling. Between millimetric virtuosity and very British humor, its cult show for nine jugglers continues to defy the laws of gravity with an ever-renewed success.

Nine impeccably dressed jugglers, eighty red apples, four porcelain services: everything is ready for an impeccable tea party. But at Gandini Juggling, appearances are made to be shaken. Very quickly, the apples fly away, the dishes threaten to shatter into a thousand shards, conventions waver and the tea ceremony is transformed into a joyful mechanism of chaos. Created by the British company Gandini Juggling, a world reference in contemporary juggling, Smashed is inspired by the world of Pina Bausch to invent a fascinating theatre of gesture, where juggling becomes a choreographic language. Each throw, each movement, each look composes a score of remarkable precision, carried by an eclectic soundtrack that brings together Bach, Tammy Wynette and the great voices of the music hall. Through a succession of scenes as elegant as they are offbeat, the nine performers draw a gallery of human relationships, between seduction, rivalries, clumsiness and the desire for power. Humour, resolutely British, constantly comes to the surface, while technical virtuosity is put at the service of a true stage writing. Since its creation more than fifteen years ago, Smashed has triumphed on the greatest international stages. At the crossroads of circus, dance and theatre, this now cult work reinvents the art of juggling with jubilant inventiveness. A show of crazy elegance, as irresistibly funny as it is masterfully mastered.

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