Paradise Circus Now

In English

Even mildness requires training and flexibility. How do you manage that when
you’ve become hardened along the way?

In Paradise Circus Now, seven characters are wandering in a desert. They all ran away from a past that haunts them. The last to join the group is a young woman who fled to the Netherlands, away from violence. Together they travel around like a new and unconventional family, in a show that involves songs, music, dance and theatrical acts.

The performance is spoken in various languages and is provided with subtitles in both Dutch and English.

Paradise Circus Now is a poetic, sharp, and unpredictable show full of imagination, in an arena of powerful songs and softly whispered balancing acts. Entering that arena again and again is a leap into the unknown, with the audience sometimes serving as a safety net.

With their towering ambitions, the performers are bound to stumble, but the group is nimble. They brush off the dust, grab a new costume, and move on from one city to the next.

The creation process

The performance is created during 8 different residencies in theaters and production houses throughout the Netherlands. Each residency week concludes with an 'open studio', inviting the audience to step into the arena and experience newly made scenes that were created in the preceding days.

Director Hendrik Aerts collaborates with a broad artistic team and with seven emerging performers, all curious about the synergy of their different art disciplines and a process of co-creation.