Taking Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem as an inspiration, Square Peg Contemporary Circus perform a fantastical interpretation of The Rime of The Ancient Mariner.

The 6 performers make use of the stage and set construction to weave the fantastical tale out of the performance space. With so much action on stage it would be possible to believe that the performance could be disorienting, however each performer brings their own style of acrobatics and persona to the piece.

What makes the performance so gratifying is that they never lose sight of the source material and give Coleridge’s words new life through impressive tumbles and seamless falls. The precision in the acrobatics only adds to the epic nature of the story that is unfolding.

Traditional seafaring music aids in developing the tone, but does however distract from the performance by being somewhat overbearing. The theatre space itself may not have been best suited to the acrobatics, with no stage lighting to assist in creating the maritime scenery, however this did not fully distract from this well constructed and masterfully performed circus piece.