L'Autre Cirque

La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines and MONTRÉAL COMPLÈTEMENT CiRQUE unite for the benefit of L’Autre Cirque, the one that celebrates the hybridization of genres, a mix that sometimes surprises, but always refreshes. On the edge of the circus and other forms of expression, these unusual evenings give voice to artists who choose alternative paths of creation and provoke our imagination to better entertain us.

Here's your chance to discover a different kind of circus!

Full-length version: July 6, 8, and 10 (50 min)

Royaume s'effondre

Maxim Laurin
Creator and performer

Royaume s’effondre is an auteur circus piece performed by six artists and grounded in a biographical approach. Inspired by the recent departure of the artist’s father, it unfolds in five chapters tracing the impulses, silences, and imbalances that led him to leave everything behind and begin a new life in Thailand.

Through this intimate narrative, the artist explores inherited legacies, models of masculinity shaped by a patriarchal society, and the influence of family codes on their generation—particularly in how romantic and emotional relationships are approached.

Now living in Thailand, the father also stands at the center of this new chapter, occupying an ambivalent position: that of an aging Western man in a foreign country, whose origin and relative economic privilege grant him a form of implicit power.

This tension between escape, risk-taking, and power becomes a thread through which to understand the contours of his transformation. From this singular story, the piece opens up broader questions around the transmission of masculine roles.

Performers : Frederic Langevin, Frédérique Cournoyer Lessard, Gael Della Valle, Hanna Grove, Lily-Claire Major, Maxim Laurin, Pauline Bonnani

Short version: July 7, 9 and 11 (35 min + 20 min)

Be Subservient To My Ambition

Bridie Hooper
Director/Artist

Be Subservient To My Ambition is a radical act of defiance, embodied by the drive of a woman striving to rise. By placing the body in a simple yet uncompromising position of prolonged suspension, the work explores power, submission, and endurance, in a pursuit of liberation that may ultimately be unattainable.

Performed entirely on aerial straps, the piece combines the physical performance of Bridie Hooper with a distinctive sound composition by Kelly Ryall, creating an intimate live art experience. By subverting the masculine dimension of vertical space, it unfolds as a journey of raw effort and psychological endurance.

Presented at the center of a circle and closely surrounded by the audience, the action relies on a single apparatus. This proximity intensifies the experience and actively engages spectators. By focusing on duration—remaining suspended for as long as possible—the work moves away from spectacle to explore a form of virtuosity rooted in endurance.

Reduced to the relationship between body and straps, it offers a raw, kinesthetic experience, pushing toward the point of rupture. Within this sustained tension, circus expands into a sculptural form, existing at the edge of live art.

Spillover

Merlin Matthewson, Nadav Sadlik
Co-director

Spillover follows two young men attempting, as best they can, to find balance within their relationship. At times, one crosses a line, giving rise to a range of shifting emotions: painful, humiliating, confusing, distressing, or deeply alienating. At others, they experience fleeting moments of clarity, realizing they understand each other completely—and perhaps always have. In these instances, synchronicity is restored, and their fragile equilibrium re-emerges.

Blending juggling, physical theatre, and acrobatic movement, the piece explores imperfect friendship, soft masculinity, and shame. Extending the work of Crawl Space collective, it proposes an innovative approach to juggling, integrating dance and acrobatic tools to expand the discipline into a movement language of its own.

The collective also incorporates non-juggling objects as symbolic elements, using their virtuosity in manipulation to generate new associations and narrative possibilities.