BARBU to Bid Au Revoir to the Spiegeltent at London Wonderground Next Month

After a raucous summer season at LonDon Wonderground at Southbank Centre, Canadian Circus Company Cirque Alfonse will bid au revoir to the Spiegeltent on 25 September. The spectacularly sexy and hairy cabaret, BARBU, will end its headline run at the recently expanded LonDon Wonderground having delighted and astounded audiences for 14 weeks.

Hot on the heels of a storming run at Underbelly's new Circus Hub venue last year, the first major venue dedicated solely to circus at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, BARBU opened at LonDon Wonderground on Wednesday 15 June.

Wowing audiences in 2013 with their London debut of the madcap lumberjack circus Timber!, Cirque Alfonse's BARBU takes this form of edge-of-your-seat, off-the-wall entertainment to a whole other level with breath-taking performances from a group of the world's most extraordinary dare-devil acrobats, all set to a heart thumping score by a frenetic electro-trad band.

BARBU delves into the origins of the circus in Montreal at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Imagine a fairground, where spectators are left spellbound by astonishing performances and outrageous feats, simple curiosities and unexpected eccentricities. Political correctness has no place in the madness and mayhem of this show.

Since it began, Cirque Alfonse has been exploring traditional iconic Quebec images and integrating them into a truly innovative form of contemporary acrobatics. In the Lanaudière region of Quebec, the Carabinier-Lépine family and their close friends joined forces in 2005, and the following year they created La Brunante which became the foundation for Timber! which premiered in 2010. This highly original production became an undeniable success with more than 300 performances in 13 countries to date.

London's finest circus party and the Cirque Alfonse clan's third show, BARBU, is an exuberant, bizarre and once-in-a-lifetime extravaganza.

IF YOU GO:

Cirque Alfonse in
BARBU
at LonDon Wonderground at Southbank Centre
15 June - 25 September 2016
Tickets from £15 - £45
Premium packages available

Suitable for ages 16+
Running time 75 minutes
To book phone: 0844 545 8282
www.londonwonderground.co.uk

Performance Times:

Tuesdays - Fridays and Sundays at 7.30pm
Saturdays at 6pm and 8.30pm
No shows Mondays

Underbelly is a UK based, live entertainment company that runs several festivals and events across the country. Founded in 2000 by directors Ed Bartlam and Charlie Wood to operate one venue at the Edinburgh Festival, Underbelly has grown to include the Udderbelly and LonDon Wonderground festivals in London, Udderbelly Festival in Hong Kong, Edinburgh's Christmas and the Comedy Hullabalooin Stratford-Upon-Avon, as well as an ever-growing programme at the Edinburgh Fringe. Through Underbelly Productions, we also produce and promote live shows for UK and international touring. Underbelly also produces large scale events, most recently including West End Live, Pride in London and the Rugby World Cup Fanzone in Richmond. In short, Underbelly is all about entertainment. In 2015, over 1.1 million people bought tickets to our shows and attractions and we had over 5 million visitors to our events. Our giant upside-down purple cow is now an iconic annual fixture of the London, Edinburgh and Hong Kong skylines. www.underbelly.co.uk

Southbank Centre is the UK's largest arts centre, occupying a 21­ acre site that sits in the midst of London's most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk. Southbank Centre is carrying out vital restoration work on the Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room to make the buildings fit for future generations to enjoy, more information can be found here: letthelightin.southbankcentre.co.uk.