Before attending the 2024 SO festival in Skegness on 15th June, I looked up what acts would be included and one that caught my eye was Transir by Spanish Circus Company Rojo Telón.

The performance was advertised as a 'game about transformation, life and death, A visual Pop Circus displayed between four posts of an aerial structure'.

Initially the performance was supposed to be outdoors at the festival but due to weather warnings the festival organisers decided to move it into the Embassy Theatre's auditorium but rather than being on a stage, the aerial structure was placed at the back of the auditorium and I was only able to get a seat on the balcony upstairs which looked onto the act from the side. I do feel this hindered the experience a little as the performance did involve quite a lot of audience interaction and I can't help but wonder if it was more engaging to watch from the front as it was produced to be viewed. 

The show was interesting although the narrative wasn't easy to follow and throughout most of it, I wasn't really sure what the four performers were trying to portray. 

There was a lot of colour and the music was loud. I liked that it was composed and played by one of the performers. 

The duration of the show was 55 minutes. Due to the description I did expect the show to be predominantly aerial based, however no aerial apparatus was touched until around 25 minutes into the performance. 

The acrobatics was good and the performers were quite skillful but they whole first half was quite repetitive and drawn out. 

I did really enjoy how the performers brought a crash mat into the performance area, they used it as a platform/wall on which they adapted and moved round to create some interesting shapes before placing it below the aerial apparatus.

and as an aerialist I really related to the small section where one of the performers was nervous prior to going on the trapeze and adopted  delaying tactics like getting a drink and putting more grip aid on. It something lots of aerialists do prior to trying out new or scary tricks so it was really amusing for me to see it as part of the show. 

The trapeze work was quite technical but looked really messy. I felt like there was an element of intentional messiness but it didn't quite work.  

The aerial hoop artist started with some really interesting transitions and quite stylised movements but as soon as she started doing dynamic moves, they to become really messy and the elbow rolls were executed really poorly with her folding to one side and and obviously struggling to complete the move.  I was quite surprised by this as while I was researching I had seen the same moves done by the same performers much cleaner so I am assuming the aerial work just didn't go to plan on the day I watched.

I liked the concept of the hoop being used in a horizontal position and feel it could produce some really interesting shapes and movements but the three artists working on it didn't seem to be working very synchronised and for that reason it didn't really work on the show.

I felt that there was moments within the production that were really interesting and worked well but over all it was a little drawn out and the aerial work seemed poorly executed. I'm not sure if this was because of the last minute change of location or how the performance goes in general. 

Transir used skillful performers on the ground but was a little drawn out and the aerial work didn't seem to go to plan!

I also noticed a lot of people walk out throughout the show, which made me feel quite bad for them however it would probably not have been noticeable if the show was outdoors in a festival setting as intended.

I will try to catch them again at another event and update my review if there is a big difference.