The Circus Animals’ Desertion
World Premiere Dublin Theatre Festival
The Circus Animals’ Desertion is a dance theatre performance, inspired by the automatic writing experiments of George and Willian Butler Yeats.
It also sets Yeats’ romantic notions of nationhood against the brutal realities of extreme nationalism, radicalisation, xenophobia and oppression engulfing the world today.
The Circus Animals’ Desertion takes the form of a collective dream, abstract, contradictory but ultimately a true expression of human nature. Through mask and dance, a panoply of characters, creatures and objects populate the stage to create the world which is at once strange and yet devastatingly familiar.
“Stirring, Arresting Darkly Comic Phantasmagoria” The Irish Times ★★★★
“exquisite, and really has to be seen to be appreciated.” The Review Hub ★★★★
“a surreal portrait of radicalization sent as if from on high” The Stage ★★★★
A co-production with Project Arts Centre and Mermaid Arts Centre.
Devised and directed by Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan
Music by Sean Millar
Choreography by Jessica Kennedy
