Smashed 2 – Juggling and circus show by Gandini Juggling in Fleury-les-Aubrais (Loiret)

Le 16 april 2027

Created by the renowned British company Gandini Juggling, Smashed has become one of the world's most iconic contemporary juggling shows. First presented in 2010, it has been performed hundreds of times on the world's greatest stages and has profoundly influenced the circus arts landscape with its theatrical, choreographic, and cinematic approach to juggling. With Smashed 2, Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala revisit their cult classic, offering a completely new creation that reverses the power dynamics of the original show while retaining its instantly recognizable visual style.

On Friday, April 16, 2027, the La Passerelle Cultural Center in Fleury-les-Aubrais will host this new creation where juggling becomes much more than a demonstration of virtuosity: it becomes a true dramatic language. On stage, nine exceptional artists – seven women and two men – move through a succession of living tableaux blending technical precision, dance, physical theatre, biting humor, and visual poetry.

While Smashed featured seven men and two women juggling 80 red apples—a deliberate nod to the forbidden fruit and gender tensions—Smashed 2 completely reverses the roles. The apples disappear, replaced by a multitude of oranges, whose vibrant color transforms the scene into a veritable pictorial composition. This change of object is not insignificant: the oranges become the symbol of a sharper, more biting, and sometimes more violent narrative, where women seize power in a series of situations that are as funny as they are disturbing.

Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala continue their exploration of human relationships through movement and objects. Inspired in particular by Pina Bausch's famous work, Kontakthof, they use juggling as a narrative tool to express seduction, domination, frustration, desire, revenge, and solidarity. The throwing, catching, and exchanging of objects become silent dialogues between the performers, giving rise to a remarkably precise choreography.

The show is structured as a series of short scenes, each with its own distinct visual and musical identity. The performers move with disconcerting fluidity from lighthearted to darker moods, from absurdist humor to palpable dramatic tension. Synchronized movements, slow motion, freeze-frames, and group compositions sometimes evoke vintage photographs or classical paintings, transforming the stage into a living gallery of artworks.

The soundtrack plays a vital role in this sophisticated production. It blends popular songs and classics from diverse musical genres, ranging from Roy Orbison to Johnny Mathis, from Gillian Hills' famous "Zou Bisou Bisou" to Verdi, before exploding into the punk energy of the Sex Pistols for a spectacular finale. Each track accompanies a change in atmosphere and enhances the cinematic quality of the show.

The strength of Smashed 2 also lies in its ability to make the audience forget the extreme technical difficulty of what unfolds before their eyes. The performers seamlessly blend together particularly complex sequences of group juggling, perfectly synchronized stunts, multi-person exchanges, pinpoint manipulations, and constant movement, all while continuously embodying their characters. Here, the performance is never gratuitous: every throw, every orange drop, every gesture directly contributes to the narrative.

Beneath its apparent lightheartedness, Smashed 2 ironically examines the power dynamics between women and men. The two male characters gradually become victims of a power structure that inverts traditional roles. Manipulated, ridiculed, prevented from acting, or relegated to the background, they experience what the female characters seem to have endured for generations. The show deliberately plays with clichés, sometimes to the point of caricature, to provoke laughter, discomfort, or reflection.

The ever-present humor gradually gives way to a more subdued anger. This dramatic shift leads to a finale of rare intensity where the stage explodes in a shower of oranges, while "Anarchy in the UK" blares. This deliberately excessive conclusion acts as a catharsis, leaving the audience to interpret this symbolic revenge and its multiple layers of meaning.

Visually, Smashed 2 impresses with its elegance. The understated costumes, inspired by the aesthetics of the 1950s and 60s, contrast with the vibrancy of the fruit that constantly moves through the space. The lighting highlights the geometry of the movements, while the group formations evoke, in turn, the paintings of Rubens, Goya, or the famous still lifes of Cézanne, where oranges become veritable elements of artistic composition.

Founded in 1992, Gandini Juggling is now considered one of the most influential juggling companies in the world. Led by Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala, it is renowned for having profoundly renewed the discipline by blending the most demanding juggling techniques with contemporary dance, physical theatre, and visual arts. Its creations are regularly featured in major international circus and theatre festivals and have helped establish juggling as a true choreographic art form.

With Smashed 2, the company continues its ambitious artistic approach, offering a show that is both accessible and intelligent. Juggling enthusiasts will admire exceptional technical mastery, while the general public will discover a sensitive, funny, and sometimes provocative work, where virtuosity always takes a backseat to storytelling and emotion. Blending visual theater, dance, contemporary circus, and choreographic performance, Smashed 2 offers a spectacular and unique experience, once again confirming Gandini Juggling's singular talent for transforming a few dozen oranges into a remarkable artistic and human playground.

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Smashed 2