Iris Theatre's CIRCUIT will bring 'total theatre' to St Paul's Church, Covent Garden in May

Adventure, android ballerinas and ancient magic will merge together at St Paul's Church Covent Garden next month in the experimental performance project, "Circuit". An Iris Theatre production in association with Antique Dance's Holly Noble and circus performer extraordinaire Elissavet Aravidou, "Circuit" will blend emerging physical theatre, circus and contemporary dance artists to create the dark, fairy-tale world of the Xiamian, the world Beneath.

The production's producers set the scene for the piece with the following introduction: 

"A long forgotten, cavernous building broods in the dark, the air thick with the hum of a million ghosts. The silence is suddenly broken by the sound of a heavy metal door slowly swinging open. A child peers in through the darkness. In the shadows strange creatures, half human, half machine, begin to move......

Far in the future, a child from Gao - the shining skies above - accidentally tumbles into the shadowy depths of Xiàmiàn below. The silence of the underworld is disturbed by the child's arrival and in the shadows long-dormant creatures from a circus long ago come to life."

Iris Theatre was founded by Artistic Director, Daniel Winder, in 2007 initially to produce Murder In the Cathedral. Since then Winder and his team of fellow creatives have developed the company into a theatre group dedicated to creating site specific work which uses epic spaces to house total theatre. Their most recent innovation was a hugely successful presentation of new musical theatre writing in March 2011, "WorkIn Process 1".

"Circuit" will be staged on Friday 13th & Saturday 14th May, commencing at 8 pm, at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden.

(Tickets: £12 in advance, £15 on the door; Concessions - £10

Online Box office: www.seetickets.com Phone Box office: 0871 230 0010)

Robert Gould is a graduate of the University of Wales, Swansea, a former teacher, a writer of history books for schools (The French Revolution and European Nationalism, 1848-71) and the librettist and lyricist of a number of musicals. Collaborating with composer Ty Kroll, he has written the book and lyrics for the musicals, Lovers, Alone and Vocalize!. Concerts of songs from Lovers and Vocalize! were presented at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (in March 2002 and April 2003) and Alone received its world premiere staging in Madison, Wisconsin in April 2003. He has co-written the book & lyrics(with Jimmy Granstrom) for The Dying Game, a musical that speaks for the victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa (with music by Filip von Uexkull, Ty Kroll & Tristan Bons) - which received a showcase production at the Greenwich Musical Futures season in 2005. He wrote lyrics for the Tim Prottey-Jones albums More With Every Line and Surrounded By The Sounds and is currently developing the musical Roundabout with songwriter Joe Sterling and the musicals Based On A True Story, Elephant Juice, Grace Notes, Flop and My Land's Shore with composer Christopher J. Orton.

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