FROM GLASTONBURY TO A NEW KIND OF CIRCUS
What happens when a cutting-edge production company meets one of Britain’s best-known circus families – and neither side is particularly interested in playing it safe?
The answer was Cirque Berserk: a spectacular new take on circus that fused breathtaking physical performance with theatrical spectacle, outrageous characters, pioneering costume and the unmistakable creative DNA of Area 51.
The story began with the spectacular arrival of the Warwickshire company’s Somnambu at the world-renowned Glastonbury Festival – a production that demonstrated just how far the traditional circus format could be pushed when theatre, live performance, outrageous performers, music, costume and visual spectacle were thrown into the same creative cauldron.
That show grabbed national attention and including the admirers were Zippos’s Circus, one of Europe’s best-known circus companies. The result was an invitation to collaborate on something rather different; an adult-flavoured circus spectacular for London’s Hyde Park Winter Wonderland.
Area 51 director Matt Page began working closely with Zippo’s founder Martin Burton, and together they set about coming up with something unique that would sit outside the conventions of the traditional family circus.
The result of this first meeting of minds was Winter Cirque.
And it was just the beginning.
A CIRCUS WITH A LITTLE MORE BITE
Winter Cirque too the visual language and theatrical ambition of Somnambu and expanded it into a larger, faster and more jaw-dropping production.
The response was huge. Around 1200,000 people experienced the show, discovering a darker circus that was edgier and considerably more left-field than the traditional big top experience.
For Area 51, however, the real excitement was what happened next.
Rather than simply repeating a successful formula, Matt and Martin began to develop a completely new concept: a second strand of circus brilliance that could exist alongside Zippo’s established family shows but with its own idiosyncratic identity and energy.
CIRQUE BESERK IS BORN
It was circus turned up to 11 – lightning-fast, action-packed and unapologetically theatrical with innovative music, remarkable costuming, décor, extraordinary make up and a succession of visual surprises.
And, naturally, Area 51 wasn’t interested in doing the same thing twice.
STEAMPUNK, VICTORIANA & A TRIP INTO THE UNKNOWN
One of the early Cirque Berserk productions plunged the audience into a quixotic world of steampunk, Victoriana and science fiction thrills.
The company brought its expertise in character creation, décor, costume, makeup and theatrical design to the production, helping to conjure up a world that felt simultaneously futuristic and strangely familiar.
The emphasis was always on atmosphere as much as spectacle. Characters weren’t simply performers walking into a circus ring; they belonged to a carefully constructed universe.
Music, movement, lighting, costume and stunning effects were all brought together to create a rapidly-changing theatrical experience in which there was barely time to catch your breath before the next surprise arrived before your eyes.
This proved so successful that Zippo’s even took the show on the road, starting at West End theatres before eventually taking it around the nation’s theatre-land to great acclaim.
ONCE UPON A TIME… BUT NOT QUITE AS YOU REMEMBER IT
The success was marked but Area 51 were not satisfied to sit on their laurels.
And so, then came another complete change of direction the following year.
Cirque Berserk turned its attention to the world of fairy tales – but this was definitely not a bedtime story!
Traditional stories and Grimm-inspired imagery were given a dark and mischievous makeover that was also distinctly adult; creating a spectacular circus interpretation of familiar stories.
Area 51 helped bring the production to life through its trademark combination of remarkable character creation, costume, make up, décor, performance and visible storytelling.
Even the addition of breakdancers helped chuck convention out of the big top!
It was another example of the creative philosophy that has become central to the Area 51 approach: take a familiar idea, turn it upside down and inside out and then see what happens!
ENTER THE TIKI TRIBE
Just when audiences might have thought they knew where Cirque Berserk was heading, the production changed again the following year.
This time the inspiration came from Tiki culture and Polynesian imagery.
The result was a riot of colour, character and exotica atmosphere with Area 51’s costume and makeup departments playing a particularly important role.
As with every production, nothing was left to chance. The music, the design of characters, the styling and visual details were developed to worth together as one complete experience.
That attention to detail is what transforms a collection of talented circus acts into a genuine theatrical production.
The audience doesn’t simply sit and watch the performers.
For a couple of hours, they enter their world and live and breathe it themselves.
MECHANIKA: CIRCUS ARRIVES IN THE FUTURE
They went somewhere else entirely!
This time, Mechanika plunged Cirque Berserk into a futuristic, sci-fi inspired world populated by machines and extraordinary robotic characters created by the Area 51 design crew.
They weren’t simply costumes: they were huge, theatrical characters designed to dominate the space and create an immediate sense of wonder.
This production combined robots with amazing costuming, pyrotechnics, lasers, BMX stunt riding and breakdancing to come up with an explosive collision between circus, street performance art, circus and sci-fi.
Some of the robot characters even took to the air!
The result was a full-throttle spectacle in which traditional circus skills were embellished with the visual language of a futuristic movie.
It was precisely the kind of challenge Area 51 thrives on and relishes.
NEVER THE SAME SHOW TWICE
The evolution of Cirque Berserk perfectly illustrates something fundamental about Area 51’s creative approach.
Success isn’t an excuse to stand still!
From Somnanmbu at Glastonbury to Winter Cirque in Hyde Park, and from the steampunk world of early Cirque Berserk through dark fairy tales, Tiki-inspired spectacle and to the futuristic madness of Mechanika, each production was deliberately different.
New worlds. New characters. New music. New perceptible language.
The company continually pushed the collaboration into new territory, while retaining the speed, energy and sheer theatrical impact that made Cirque Berserk such a distinctive proposition in the first place.
And that is where Area 51’s contribution goes beyond simply supplying performers to a client.
The company can become involved at every stage of the creative process – from the original concept and character development through costume, makeup, props, scenery and performance – helping turn an idea into something audiences can actually step inside.
FROM ONE EXTRAORDINARY PARTNERSHIPCAME A NEW CIRCUS BRAND
The relationship between Area 51 and Zippo’s Circus became another example of the company’s ability to form long-term creative partnerships with organisations at the top of their respective fields.
What began with the success of Somnambu evolved into Winter Cirque.
Winter Cirque evolved into Cirque Berserk.
And Cirque Berserk then developed into a distinctive circus brand in its own right, combining the technical skill and traditions of circus with the theatrical imagination, irreverence and visual extravagance that have become Area 51 trademarks.
For audiences, it meant something wonderfully simple:
Cirus: but not as you know it!
For Area 51, it was another opportunity to prove that when a client says “can we do something different?”, the answer isn’t merely yes.
It’s usually:
How different?
And that’s when things become interesting.
