The Widow’s Best of 2018
In what has been another miserable year in many respects, the arts have been more important than ever in keeping spirits high. Here are some of the things we’ve liked. They lean a little, but – suffering as we are from ‘circus fatigue’ – certainly not all the way, towards that art form. But first we have something to say. Last year when we posted our ‘Best of’ round-up, one of our favourite cabaret acts had a fit of pique and unfollowed us and blocked us because she hadn’t made the cut. So this time, before offending anyone else of a similarly delicate disposition, we’d like to point out that to be considered for our list, we have to have seen your show – even if it’s an old one – during the year. So, now that’s clear, let’s proceed. All shows are in London unless otherwise stated.
BEST SHOW: Knot by the hand-to-hand duo of Nikki and JD – American Nikki Rummer and Frenchman Jean-Daniel Broussé – seen (again) at The Place. This show has it all: skill, emotion, humour, dance, music. We simply loved it! Don’t miss it on tour again in 2019.
MALE CIRCUS ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Laci Simet, whose 40-year career has encompassed appearances on high wire, Wheel of Death, motorbike on the wire, skywalks and more recently The Semaphore – a recreation of the Koch Sisters revolving act – during which he balances on a knife edge that is constantly falling away from him. His was also the MOST READ WIDOW INTERVIEW.
FEMALE CIRCUS ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Rhiannon Cave-Walker from Fauna, not just for her stunning skills but because she’s such lovely person. Fauna ran at Flora Herberich’s Battersea Circus Garden during Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
BEST ACT: The flying Russian cradle in Cirque du Soleil’s OVO at the Royal Albert Hall, Barcode’s Russian bar with flyer Alexandra Royer and bases Eric Bates and Tristan Nielsen, seen at Cirque de Demain in Paris, and anything Lewie West did in Gravity & Other Myth’s Backbone, which ran at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
BEST SURPRISE APPEARANCE: The stupendous Rowan Heydon-White, who popped up unannounced in Circa’s Peepshow during the Underbelly Festival.
MOST INNOVATIVE CIRCUS SHOW: The holograms used in Circus Roncalli.
BEST THEATRE SHOW: Mother by Peeping Tom Dance at the Barbican during the London International Mime Festival.
MOST WELCOME RETURN FROM INJURY: Lydia Harper, who returned to Cirque du Soleil’s TORUK after four months off following hip surgery. And Andrew Adams of The Silhouette. Having fallen 30ft from the Wallendas’ high wire and being badly hurt, he recovered and appeared with Sasha Harrington at Cirque de Demain.
BEST CIRCUS 250 SHOW: Chris Barltrop’s self-penned one-man show, Audacious Mr Astley – seen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – tops the year celebrating the birth of circus in the UK. Chris also gets BEST COSTUME for Astley’s beautiful and authentic red coat.
BEST MC: The inimitable Calixte de Nigremont, whom we met at last at Cirque de Demain.
BEST MAGIC TRICK: Yann Frisch appearing a pack of cards from nowhere during Le Paradoxe de Georges in his spectacular movable theatre Le Camion-Chapiteau – which gets BEST VENUE – in Paris, and Eric Chien’s Ribbon act to become 2018 FISM close-up champion.
MOST ARRESTING IMAGES: Phia Menard’s show about suicide, Les Os Noirs, at the Montfort Theatre in Paris.
BEST ONGOING NIGHT: Rose Thorne and Benjamin Louche’s Double R Club at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.
MOMENT OF WONDER: Cai Guo-Qiang’s exquisite daytime powder fireworks. Plus Lewie West skidding on this hands in Backbone, and Daniel Cave-Walker balancing on his head in Fauna. Look, no hands!
BEST CIRCUS CABARET: Black Cat Bohemia at the Underbelly Festival at Southbank Centre. A simply wonderful show! It transcended the format, which can often look tired, and its line-up included our interviewees Lj Marles, Katharine Arnold and Nicolas Jelmoni, as well as others knock-out acts such as the lovely Jo Moss.
MOST UNIQUE SHOW: Crème de la Dregs by Dina Martina at Soho Theatre.
BEST ‘IN CONVERSATION’: Performance artist Rose English and Stine Hebert during Crying Out Loud’s Circus Sampler at Somerset House.
BEST DANCE: B-boy Elihu Vazquez in Barely Methodical Troupe’s SHIFT, seen at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and German Cornejo and Gisela Galeassi’s thrilling duets in Tango After Dark at the Peacock Theatre.
BEST DANCE CIRCUS: Motionhouse’s Charge also at the Peacock.
BEST CIRCUS FILM: Psycho-Circus with Christopher Lee from 1966, in which a circus becomes the location for stolen loot and murder!
MOST FABULOUS: Régis Marvin Merveille N'Kissi Moggzi in the joyous French teen movie/documentary Swagger, which is set in one of the country’s most under-privileged neighbourhoods.
BEST INTERVIEW: Gaylord Fields speaking to the tireless Petula Clark on WFMU. Hoping for some UK concerts in 2019.
BEST MUSIC IN A CIRCUS SHOW: Elliot Zoerner and Shenton Gregory’s soundtrack for Backbone, played live onstage.
MOST SHOWBIZ: Mr Murray Hill. Nobody cared when his show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe drifted off course and never came back. It was enough to be in the New York icon’s presence.
BEST SHOWBIZ BOOK: Spun Into Gold: The Secret Life of a Female Magician by Romany, Diva of Magic.
BEST BURLESQUE: Dita Von Teese, naturally, plus the stunning Zelia Rose, but certainly not the rest of the cast in The Art of the Teese at the Carré in Amsterdam.
BEST TV CHARACTER: Ciro di Marzio from Gomorra and Joséphine ‘Maître’ Karlsson from Engrenages/Spiral.
MOST IMPRESSIVE MEMORY FEAT: Laura Linney in I Am Lucy Barton at the Bridge Theatre, who was word perfect in this 90-minute monologue.
BEST GIG: Winter Kills (Piano Magic) at Antenna Studios, Barry Adamson at Union Chapel, and Sevdaliza at The Barbican.
BEST SOLO SHOW: Songs for Nobodies, Bernadette Robinson’s astonishing portrayal of five divas: Garland, Cline, Piaf, Holiday and Callas, at Wilton’s Music Hall.
MOST UPSETTING: The news that the spectacular French variety show Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde, hosted by Patrick Sébastien, is ending in June 2019. Sob!
MOST CHARISMATIC: Isabella Rossellini in her theatrical lecture, Link Link Circus, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; a sort of follow-up to her wonderful Green Porno.
ONE TO WATCH: Mieke Lizotte, currently with Gravity & Other Myths.
MOST ANTICIPATED IN 2019: Aurélia Thiérée’s Bells and Spells at the Theatre Royal during the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and Isabelle Huppert in the film Greta!
MOST MISSED: Circus artist/actor Raphael Cruz, who died at just 32, and our lovely friend Merian Ganjou of the fabulous Dior Dancers, who died aged 79. Keep on flying, Merian!
Look out for the first of our interviews in the new year, which will be with one (or more) of the artists from Cirque Eloize show Hotel, which is coming to the Peacock Theatre in February.
Pic credits: Fabio Affuso; Nicholas Brittain
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I’m glad to hear you talk so favourably of Schoolmatters, for not only in the Company of Schoolmasters but in almost all Company, I find the word School, or my school is very apt to croud into conversation.. Sometimes, like Adam of old, I am for laying the blame at other people’s doors.. For almost every person entertains such a terrible Idea of the Confinement of a School, as if the schoolhouse were indeed worse than a prison, that they are frequently asking some Question or other about it, How can you endure it? do you like it? I would not for the Nothing. many more phrases I could repeat, but you have heard them all often I dare say & when one is set a going, you know it is very easy to keep on, especially if we have the wind and tide with us……
Elihu Marvin to Nathan Hale, May 24 1774
I CANNOT ELIHU STRAIGHT UP CALLING MY BOY NATHAN A NERD LMAO THEN TRYING TO JUSTIFY HIMSELF SAYING THE BLAME FALLS TO OTHER PEOPLE
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