Lento e violento is a contemporary circus performance that combines new magic*, contemporary dance, and physical theatre. This performance is a puzzle, a multilayered enigma, a piece in which the action repeats, in which new magic creates illusion, doubt, and irony.

New magic, or magie nouvelle, is a fresh performance genre that combines old illusionist techniques and knowledge of human perception with technologies and new dramaturgy.

The logic of confusion already present in the titular nomenclature, which should objectively express the author’s identity, points—beyond the play of borrowed or disguised identities—to doubts between the individual and the collective, and certainly evokes Artaud’s principles of the theatre of cruelty. The riddle in the title quite rightly guides us into the ambitious intellectualism that deeply permeates the performance in many aspects. Yet, neither the performance nor its protagonist falters in the realm of playful questioning and devotion to genuine playfulness. The play continues to the end without fatigue or loss of momentum.

(Jasmina Fučkan, PLESNA SCENA.hr, June 1, 2022)

The performance in Split is organised by the ROOM 100 collective, and the presentation is part of a tour featuring the organisations Čarobnjakov šešir, Cirkorama, Cirkusfera, Desiré Festival, and ROOM 100. The tour is carried out with the support of Teatroskop – the Network for Performing Arts in Southeastern Europe, initiated by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the French Ministry of Culture, and the Institut français Paris, and takes place within the IF EXPORT program – a program dedicated to the international circulation of French artists and projects. The program is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia through the project “Fragments of Circus.”