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Battle of the sexes: This is What We Do for a Living by Tumble Circus at Southbank Centre

Battle of the sexes: This is What We Do for a Living by Tumble Circus at Southbank Centre | Theatre review

This summer, you will find a colossal retro Spiegeltent budded on the Southbank to entertain Londoners. Until the end of September the Priceless London Wonderground at the Southbank Centre will feature a sensational brew of splendid vaudeville and scintillating circus, dance, comedy and music. Among the feria of shows, you shouldn’t miss the private, intimate and still very amusing performance of the Irish group Tumble Circus.

This Is What We Do For Living is a hilarious fictionalised comedy-circus-theatre piece telling a story of a volatile relationship of an Irishman and a Swedish girl. The nostalgic, autobiographical story performed by a duet, Kenneth Fall and Tina Segner, is an amusing extract of the ups and downs of their passionate assembly.

Slapstick acrobatics, daring double trapeze and flying hula-hoops are the metaphors and representations of the combat between man and woman in a relationship. She walks over him, kicks him and he treads on her toes. Still, it has been what they do for a living for over 15 years. Even though they fight like cat and dog, one could say that they’ll have at least nine lives to live together.

Without fanfare or sequins, Fall and Segner show the human face of the circus. Yes, they are pretending to be clumsy, fight and tease one another, but in fact  they have to be focused and in a perfect harmony to perform the hazardous aerial tricks. The active participation of the audience in the performance makes the show specially entertaining and appealing.

The Tumble Circus and their love-fight story is a light and truly enjoyable night out, so don’t miss the shows coming on 14th -15th July at 9:30 pm and 16th-17th July  at 3:00pm at the Southbank Centre.

Agata Gajda

This is What We Do for a Living is at the Southbank Centre from 14th – 17th July 2012. For further information or to book visit the Southbank Centre’s website here.

To find out more about Tumble Circus visit their website here.

You can also watch a video of Tumble Circus in action here:

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