This year again, we have the pleasure to present our new production at the world’s biggest cultural festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which attracts two million spectators every year. Paradisum, directed by Bence Vági, explores the myth of regeneration, the appearance of a new form of human life after the destruction of the world. The production combining modern dance and circus arts is performed 21 times between the 1^st and the 24^th of August. This is the fifth time our company has been invited to the Fringe. Recirquel will be on stage in the Assembly Roxy, one of the festival’s main venues.

Every year, around two million spectators attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest artistic and cultural celebration. In terms of ticket sales, the Fringe is the third biggest event in the world after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. Again this year, the festival offers a four-week programme for audiences from all over the world.

For the fifth time now, our company has been invited to the Edinburgh Fringe: last year, a reviewer of The Times said that “IMA’s strength lies in its tightly controlled, concise and slow perfectionist aesthetics”, and said it was the most unique and carefully crafted circus-based work in Edinburgh in 2023. The Guardian described IMA as a “show with both scale and intimacy” and listed it among the best productions of the Fringe. In 2018, our show My Land was chosen by critics as the best one out of 4200 performances.

This year, we were invited to present a brand-new production, which has never been performed before. Paradisum, directed by Bence Vági, addresses the audience in the specific language of ‘cirque danse’, created and made world-famous by our company.

Paradisum explores the myth of the rebirth after the silence of a destroyed world, by uniting modern dance and circus arts. It seeks the ways in which the new human being can exist in this Edenic, utopian state. During the performance, through scenes of purification, birth, awakening and rites, new beings are formed from the natural fabric pulsating around them, and they seek to reach the anima mundi, the “soul of the world”.

This production results from several months of artistic collaboration.  Zita Horváth, Renátó Illés and Gábor Zsíros, three circus performers-dancers known from previous shows, played an important role in the creative process: they were the associate choreographers of Paradisum. One should also mention Kristóf Várnagy who, like Nándor Holp and Aliz Schlecht, took part in the artistic work as creative collaborator. Emese Kasza, the costume and set designer, is also coauthoring the scenic design. Similarly to previous shows, lighting has been designed in collaboration with Attila Lenzsér. Tamás Vladár is the chief technician of Paradisum. Music is certainly an essential part of the production. Composed by Edina Szirtes and enriched with sound effects by sound designer Gábor Terjék, it expresses the conflicts of reborn human beings.

The show; directed by Bence Vági, will be on stage at one of the major venues of the festival, The Roxy. This place used to be a church, and now it’s a performance space, situated in the historical centre of Edinburgh. Recirquel was invited by the Assembly, one of the most prestigious production companies. Paradisum will be performed 21 times between the 1st and the 24th of August.