Preview: boomsatsuma end-of-year shows

July 2019 is showcase time for the Professional Acting students at boomsatsuma, the central Bristol training organisation for ages 16-18 whose mission is “to fuel the next creative generation”.

Established in 2011, boomsatsuma offers formal educational opportunities for ages 16-18 in Creative Digital Media Production, Games, VR and VFX, Professional Acting, Stage and Screen Production Arts and Dance Theatre. Students are immersed in professional settings and courses are delivered to the highest professional standards.

The boomsatsuma Professional Acting course has been developed in association with Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, making the rigour and professionalism of the latter available to 16-18-year-olds and equipping young people to take the next steps to be a professional actor.

The Acting students showcase their talents this month with a pair of shows tailored perfectly to their skills: bursting with youth, energy, physical theatre, circus skills and all-round adrenaline and excitement.

First up is Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter’s slice of fin-de-siecle magic realism, as adapted for the stage by Emma Rice (Kneehigh / Wise Children) and Bristol Old Vic artistic director Tom Morris.

Carter’s tale is set in the last year of the 19th century. As Europe waits for the new century, the world crackles with possibilities and people dance to the irresistible rhythms of money, sex, love and freedom. Swinging above them all is a showbiz sensation: a fiercely vulgar, intoxicating trapeze artist and star of Colonel Kearney’s Circus, Fevvers. She is also a woman who appears to have wings.

Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover the truth behind her identity. Dazzled by her and desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser has no choice but to join the circus on its magical tour through the turn of the century and into the brave new world.

“Angela Carter’s surreal and brilliantly crafted story has been adapted into a psychedelic, Dickensian show with larger-than-life characters, a brilliant blend of both comedy and tragedy – and, of course, a trapeze,” enthuses director Sam Bridges. “This adaptation also offers our performers great opportunities to put their skills to good use.

The graduating Professional Acting students at Bristol’s boomsatsuma showcase their talents this month with ‘Nights at the Circus’ (pictured here and above)…

“The show makes some real demands on the ensemble, moving between the macabre Clowns of the Circus to the well-read whores of Ma Nelson’s brothel. Our students have learned clowning and tumbling, drawn on their physical theatre skills and our lead has been training with Circomedia on the trapeze. It will be a brilliant showcase and a lot of fun to watch.”

The second show is set, interestingly, eight years earlier than Carter’s story. Based on Frank Wedekind’s groundbreaking and controversial play of 1892, the 2009 musical Spring Awakening is set in 1891, in a world where grown-ups hold all the cards. With only each other for guidance, a group of young men and women travel the fraught and rocky path of adolescence.

“Spring Awakening combines an electrifying rock score and genre-defying writing to tell the story of sexual and adolescent discovery,” explains director Stuart Wood. “Silenced and dismissed in the firmly censored world of 19th century Germany, a group of teenagers are forced to discover the truth behind their feelings.

… and ‘Spring Awakening’, the musical adapted from a once-banned play, which follows a group of young men and women negotiating their turbulent adolescence

“Wedekind’s play was banned from public performance in the UK until 1974 because of its unflinching portrayal of adolescent sexuality, and its impassioned attack on the way young people are treated by the establishment. It’s certainly not your traditional feelgood musical but it has a fantastic indie rock soundtrack, which will be played live on stage at the Redgrave Theatre by a six-piece band including Kasabian drummer Ian Matthews.”

A tale of young people taking their first steps in the world, alongside an evocation of the delights and thrills of a life in the performing arts: boomsatsuma’s 2019 double-header could hardly be more appropriate.

Spring Awakening July 18-21, Redgrave Theatre / Nights At The Circus July 10-12, Circomedia. For more info on both shows and on boomsatsuma, visit www.boomsatsuma.com

Read more: Preview: Dead Dog in a Suitcase, Bristol Old Vic