RUNNERS BY HIPPaNA.MALETA

RUNNERS is a circus show that combines excellent juggling, stunning objects and incredible sounds. Two jugglers, Alex and Jonas find themselves bound to the rules of running machines while a musician, Moises, orchestrates them through a series of games and experiments. This vivid circus performance celebrates juggling and running.

Running is an incredibly efficient form of human locomotion. Have you ever thought about how many muscles are needed to run, how many nerve pathways between head and leg are used with every jump? What does this mean in terms of coordination that the body performs - for something that seems to happen automatically? Just watch Maradona score a goal in the world cup final or feel the exhaustion of a Marathon runner when crossing the finish line. The run has so many emotions: It has stress and it has survival, it has adrenaline, desire, fear, whether you are being chased, chasing or escaping. Juggling is a similar phenomenon.

Throwing and catching are also complex biomechanical processes. To celebrate the evolution of the human walk and throw in an increasingly immobile culture, we created RUNNERS. Running machines on stage widen the perception and experience of speed, both of running and juggling. Because what happens below and what the legs do are naturally reflected in the upper part of the body. At the same time, you don't get anywhere because you're walking on the spot. This means that logic turns around, the ground beneath us moves and we can't help but respond.

Let’s have a party and celebrate together!

Warning: Smoke Machine

• Concept and Authorship Alex Allison, Jonas Schiffauer
• Performers Alex Allison, Daan Mackel, Moisés Mas García
• Composer, sound arrangement and live music Moisés Mas García
• Dramaturgical and choreographic accompaniment Benjamin Richter, Darragh McLoughlin, Anna-Katharina Andrees, Marie Lena Kaiser
• Costumes Liora Epstein
• Set design Alex Allison, Jonas Schiffauer, Moisés Mas García

Hippana.Maleta started with good coffee, formed by using juggling, manipulation and the body as a base to construct languages in which to explore aspects of human condition. Alex Allison, Jonas Schiffauer and Moisés Mas García explore and share their vision of circus, poetry and performance. Jonas is a juggler and actor based in Cologne, Alex is an Irish juggler/performer/creator based in Brussels, and Moisés is a producer, composer and performer, based in Alicante. Alex and Moisés met on the streets of Galway in 2010, during their time at university. Their friendship, music and juggling fused into Put A Spell On You (2018) supported by the Arts Council. Alex and Jonas met in 2012 whilst attending a workshop, becoming close over years of sharing good coffee, inspirations, juggling concepts and techniques. In 2018 they created TUNNEL as Hippana.Maleta. While creating TUNNEL Moisés joined the team to design the soundtrack for the images and movements on stage. This was the collaborative genesis that led to the common creation of RUNNERS.

Hippana.Maleta at its base is friendship, exploring the ups and downs, the highs and lows. Always coming back to close friends, sharing their struggles, fears and triumphs. The results are plays about how they interpret and reflect on aspects of the human condition. RUNNERS was created to run, and to share this joy and playfulness on stage with as many spectators as possible, Hippana.Maleta welcomed two new performers in 2023 who sometimes play the roles of Alex and Jonas - Daan Mackel as "Jonas" and Pieter Visser as "Alex".

Presented by Pitch’d Productions as part of UpDown Circus Festival, supported by The Arts Council of Ireland Festival Investment Scheme.