Previous Shows - Circus City Bristol

A photo of a person who has bent their arm right over their head to their other shoulder, forming a triangle around their face.

Explore Physicality: Acro-dance with Marina Cherry

This workshop is for anyone with a desire to find more mobility in their movements and can be applied to circus disciplines (both floor

A photo of a group of participants sat around a table having a discussion.

What next for Circus? The Last Circus Change-Up conference.

The last few years have been difficult for the arts, but circus especially. The circus sector needs support now more than ever. How can

A photo of a group of attendees standing in a check-in circle as if opening or closing a space.

Where Circus meets Sports meets Play with Circus Works

What does the sports world think about circus? What’s the relationship between circus and play? What can the sports and play worlds learn from

A person on a dimly lit stage is manipulating three lump hammers whilst they are in a low lunge.

Masterclass in devising object manipulation with Sawdust Symphony

Workshop with David Eisele, Kolja Huneck and Michael Zandl from Sawdust Symphony‘ Giving everyday objects a new life: In this workshop, we will work

A photo of Laura Murphy's upper torso, they are drinking a can of what appears to be diet coke, the liquid is pouring down their bare torso. There eyes are closed.

Writing from the Body: Devising text and movement with Laura Murphy

Laura Murphy will offer an insight into the making process underpinning their unique performance practice, which connects and combines autobiographical writing with aerial choreography,

A photo of a woman outside in a paved area. She is doing a version of the splits but one of her legs is about head height on a pillar and her other on the floor, her torso is arching backwards and her head is nearly touching the floor behind her.

Explore Physicality: Contortion with Marina Cherry

This workshop is a guide on movement as a tool for intentional creativity. The focus is on practical mobility: working on points of contact

A photo of a puppeteer operating a black cat rod puppet that is standing over a yellow rubber duck. The photo is taken against a colorfully lit stage silhouette.

Oh No George! By Can’t Sit Still

Oh No, George! is the delightfully playful tale of a dog who wants to be good but just can’t resist temptation. Adapted from the

A photo of a person dressed in a suit jacket, holding a red balloon. They have traditional clown face make up on with their hair tied up. They are looking up at the balloon.

A Spectacle of Herself by Laura Murphy

Join Laura on a mission to serve herself up [in]appropriately for your consumption, in a bold, cinematic, acrobatic odyssey through the frontiers of mental

a photo of two performers sat inside a low hung cloud swing, there is white dust on the floor and you can see their footprints on the stage. The performers are sat in such a way that the viewer can not tell where one of there body starts and the other ends.

VOLT

An opportunity to catch some of the best up and coming South West based circus artists as they share new ideas and work in

A close up photo of a face split down the middle; one half of the face is wearing a balaclava, the other half is a black and white image, their face has been painted a light colour with a dark circle around the eye. They are pulling the side of their mouth with their finger.

Ruby Burgess and Charles Brockbank present: Tongue & Cheek

A night of fresh alternative comedy mixed with circus theatre. Two new experimental shows, from Bristol-based emerging artists, bringing you something you’ve never seen

A close up image of a woman looking down. A ghostly trail, as if the picture ahs been taken with a long exposure, shows her head raised and looking to the left.

These Things Aren’t Mine by Gabbie Cook & Quiet Eye

“Hello? Is somebody there?” Ash is a circus artist living a quiet and content life in Valencia, when one day a mundane encounter triggers

A photo of a person outside sitting beneath an old tree, wearing some large ram like horns. The person is playing a cello as an audience looks on. In the fore ground there is a large upturned root stump with a fire pot inside it.

The Shape of Belonging by Whispering Woods

Let your heart soar amongst the mighty cathedral of the forest, with an evening of breathtaking aerial dance and euphoric choral performance from Whispering

A photo of a female dancer in a white dresswith one arm above her head and another pushing across her body. Behind her are other dancers all wearing white dresses, they are standing on their hands.

Tess by Ockham’s Razor/Turtle Key Arts

Tess is a groundbreaking adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. An ensemble of performers weave together Hardy’s words and the

A photo of a man wearing all black, lying on a white stage. He is holding a stick about the length of his height, straight up in the air. He is looking directly at the camera.

Stickman by Darragh McLoughlin

The man balances the stick on various parts of his body, thereby setting himself and the stick in motion. If the man has an

This is a photo of a spot-lit man standing in a black bucket holding up a plank of wood over his head which is covered in glue> The glue is dripping all over his head, face, clothes and the floor, creating a white pool on the stage around him.

Sawdust Symphony

Craftsmanship confronting circus. In Sawdust Symphony Michael Zandl, David Eisele and Kolja Huneck combine their passion for crafting, fresh wood and object manipulation. Sawdust

A photo of a person in a pool of blue light, they are in a contortion position where their head is nearly touching their heels on the floor.

Only Bones V1.6 by Marina Cherry

Lanky loidlings. Squishy Schloompings. Spiky Spa-doo-dlings. Marina Cherry squeaks, zooms, and tiptoes through a micro-space. Fragmenting pieces of a spunky personal universe puddle over

A photo of three people sat down on a yellow cusion. They rae wearing full face masks bold white men with glasses. They are playing a variety of electri instruments with wires dangling everywhere. One of the people is holding a parsnip and a leek and hitting a guitar with it.

Noise Juice by MUOVIPUSSI

“Noise Juice” is the first full-length show of the Finnish company Muovipussi. The show combines music, circus, theatre and surprising illusions. Grandmas, Barbies and

A photo of a person who has created a large cloud of white dust, perhaps polystyrene lit against a stage black out.

Materia by Andrea Salustri

We use it every day without a second thought, the most common form of plastic – polystyrene. In this remarkable piece of visual theatre,

An image of Four performers up two ladders that are leaning together to make a tower. There is a performer balancing in between them and two performers are holding on to the outside whilst another performer holds the structure up. They are all looking in different directions. There is a large and colourful bookcase in the background.

Tit for Tat present BOOKS!

Save the books! A joyful, hilarious adventure for all the family. Four bedraggled book enthusiasts are travelling from town to town – forced between

A person wearing a white shirt and black dungarees appears to be in two halves in an abandoned office room. The torso is horizontally disappearing into a mirror in the fore front of the image. The legs are standing vertically in the background with a mirror as the body, the mirror is reflecting the torso. The torso is holding an object on fire and a pack of cards spread in a fan.

A Show of Hands by Tom Cassani

A Show of Hands is a short intimate solo show investigating Cassani’s relationship with his hands and the thinking that happens with and through

Photo of Amelia and Al as their drag alter egos Ophelia and Tito Bone. They are in the middle of... some kind of cleaning activity. Ophelia (Aka Al) is a beautifully round drag thing in a beautifully round, pastel pink dress and matching pink bowl cut wig. They have painted their face white with dramatic Glittery blue eyeshadow, thin black brows, pink cheeks and lips. They look calmly towards the camera with one hand on Tito’s (Amelia’s) shoulder and the other on Tito’s right butt cheek. Tito is a slim, white drag king with buzzed brown hair, blue glitter eyebrows and beard, matching blue shirt and gold trousers. Tito is bending forward at the waist, lovingly pushing their butt into Ophelia’s crotch. Tito’s left hand rests on their thigh and their right holds a large spray bottle of anti-bacterial cleaner which they point towards something off camera. Tito’s facial expression is saying something like “to get clean, you have to get dirty first, AMIRITE?!"

Tell me, what are you doing? An Introduction to Integrated Audio Description

Come join Quiplash for an intro session on integrated audio description for circus and movement. Be prepared to move, play, explore and (of course)

A photo of a woman talking to an audience in front of a blue presentation screen.

Producer Surgery

Book a slot to come and have an informal 25 minute chat with a circus city producer. Be you an artist or producer yourself,

A photo of a person standing in front of a blue presentation screen talking into a microphone. The screen reads " Magic begins when Circus ends"

New Authors Presentations

Join us for pitches and presentations of work in progress from our three New Authors micro commissioned artists and companies. With three 30 minute

A photo of a person standing on stage in a black boiler suit holding a silver container in one hand holding a gold coin shaped object in the other. Their mouth is open as if they might eat the coin.

Iterations by Tom Cassani

Iterations centres on Cassani’s fifteen-year obsession with the skill and precision of sleight of hand. It invites us to think about how we think

A beautiful black woman sings into a mic

Black Sheep by Livia Kojo Alour

Fusing physical theatre, spoken word and song Black Sheep is the story of a queer Black woman finding love, after retiring from her full-time job as sword swallower.

9 young people crouch on concrete steps under a grey sky. Their right arms are lifted up. A 10th person hovers sideways in mid-air with legs tucked in, halfway through a jump

PUBLIC by Ockham’s Razor

To launch Circus City 2023, Ockham’s Razor perform their new free outdoor show PUBLIC at The Podium in Broadmead, Saturday 29 July.

Ves-Tigios by Circolombia

Running Time: 45 Mins Age: 7+ Thursday 30th September = SOLD OUT Ves-tigios is a journey through a dystopian wasteland that fuses