Review: HUMANS 2.0 BY CIRCA, Southbank Centre

The title of Circa's Humans 2.0 has a double meaning: as well as being a new iteration of their 2017 show Humans, it explores what could be the saving future graces for our benighted species: trust, community and incredibly fit bodies.

Australia's Circa Contemporary Circus (to give them their full name) come with a particular mission: to "push the boundaries of the art form, blurring the lines between movement, dance, theatre and circus". What that means in practice here is a veritable smorgasbord of physicality from ten highly talented acrobats which blurs the boundaries of each of those art forms.

Creative director Yaron Lifschitz's theatre background is obvious from the off in the way his core themes are introduced and expounded. When not flying through the air or carrying each other around, the performers walk in patterns which suggest the passing of time or the circular nature of life. There's the occasional planned pratfall but, in general, there are few laughs with Lifschitz instead focusing on measured movements and showing how his group work together to form a cohesive unit.

Trust exercises - where someone jumps or falls into someone else's arms - are a pattern here with one deliberate fail providing some comedy value. Two-and three-person human totem poles which form pyramids ingrain a sense of community and collaboration. This is one show that deserves repeated viewing if only to let the more metaphorical elements sink in.

Humans 2.0 isn't just an intellectual exercise, though. The circus skills are chiefly drawn from the ground-based arts. One section is just a dazzling display of backflips, sideflips and cartwheels and there is good amount of vertical and horizontal acrobalance involving both male and female bases. When the aerial equipment does come into play, we are treated to exquisite and well-crafted solo routines on rope and straps plus an inventive swing sequence that brings everyone into play.

Lifschitz's production could just as easily have found an audience in London's high temple of dance Sadler's Wells or the smaller and more experimental venue The Place but is not a show for those hankering for a spit-and-sawdust variety show or the megabudget thrills and spills associated with the likes of Cirque du Soleil. This is one for the thinkers, the philosophers and the ponderers who wish to consider the human condition, human frailty and humanity's future (appropriately enough) through the medium of human bodies.

Humans 2.0 continues at Southbank Centre until Sunday 16 April.

Photo Credit: Pedro Greig

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