Even the stage design sets the tone for this show of dubiousness: an oversized, evil clown grimace whose throat serves as an entrance and exit for the actors of “Freaks”. The new gop show takes place at a rather spooky than happy fair, associates the so-called “freak shows” of the century before last, an exploitation of human non-normality that served the audience’s thirst for sensation until the 1920s.
When a show today revives this delicate chapter of entertainment history, it’s doubly delicate. Even if, according to director Peter Weil, it’s about “discovering and embracing the inner freak in all of us”. It seems strange when at the beginning Camille Tremblay and Vanessa Collini mime confused twin girls from the “lunatic asylum” with rolled eyes and in short smocks while they perform their aerial and turntable acrobatics.
Master of ceremonies Elyas Khan presents the program in front of an oversized clown’s face – with musical compositions, but without reflections.
(Photo: Heike Kramer)
Here, as in the further course, director Detlef Winterberg undoubtedly stages impressive artistic feats, but without commenting on the problematic framework. Explanations are also expected in vain from the musical “freak master” Elyas Khan, who moderates this circus of oddities with his own compositions.
There is no question that there are acrobatic highlights in the programme: one of these is certainly the hand acrobat Estrella Urban, who zig zags across the stage on all fours as a “spider woman”. Also “the strongest man in the world” is one of them, embodied by the Alsatian Thomas Staath. He can juggle heavy truck tires as if they were bouncy balls. And yet later reveals his surprisingly graceful side as a pole acrobat. The fact that Gabriel Drouin had to show his great performance at Cyr in a red cocktail dress as a “bearded lady” is again due to the strange fair concept.
In the performance of the sword swallower, the phenomenon of sensationalism is reversed
The performance of the wildly tattooed Israeli Fibi Eyewalker, decked out in ram’s horns, reverses the phenomenon of sensationalism. When she pushes a tube through her mouth and nose, she forces one or the other viewer to look away. Then she lets hangers, swords and scissors disappear down her throat. The “sword swallower” skilfully provokes on the fine line between fascination and repulsion – apart from the gop show, she also appears in Florentina Holzinger’s successful performance “Ophelia’s Got Talent” at the Berlin Volksbühne.
Davide Nicolosi, alias “Skizzo”, acts more on the border of silliness. His magic turns out to be frills, so he climbs into a giant pink balloon and hops across the stage, giggling hysterically. What fits with this polarizing show, which, despite great artistry, revolves around a bizarre abyss.
Freaks, until March 5th, gop theaterMaximilianstrasse 47