2022 sees the Edinburgh Fringe Festival re-opening in full swing after turbulent few years amid the global pandemic. It’s been long awaited and nestled in the anticipated line up are our friends from Cirk La Putyka! We’re incredibly lucky and honoured to say we’ve been working with our Czechia friends since 2011 to bring their beautiful shows to the fringe. This year we are thrilled to be working with them again to gain traction and press interest for their daring and unique show Runners.  

This stunning circus/dance masterpiece made its UK debut at Edinburgh Fringe on 5th August. A show that is absolutely filled to the brim with enchanting dance, impressive acrobatics and original live music that sets out to examine the experience of time in a world that demands everything be done in haste. 

What makes Runners so unique, though, is the extraordinary giant treadmill, the largest in continental Europe(!), that takes centre stage. Four dancers and two musicians perform powerful choreography, original live music, Cyr wheel stunts and bewildering acrobatics as they also run almost an entire marathon. 

As you can imagine, Runners demanded a complex and intensive development process as the performers, who were not previously runners, were thrown into a six-month long rigorous crash-course to become pro-runners for the show.Throughout this development the company utilised the expertise of trainer Ian Adensam where the focus was on the form of the body while running, how to intuitively understand body, how not to overload the body and attention was even given to items as what to wear, how to breathe and what to eat. 

All performances and rehearsals still begin with a group wide run on the treadmill. Since training has been completed the cast are now committed runners.

Performer Dora Sulženko Hoštová mentioned that she runs around 50kms a week and acrobat Viktor Cernicky has since run a half-marathon.

It wasn’t just the running that was challenging, though. The show is a circus and dance-based performance and as co-director Rostoslav Novák notes, these elements also took a lot of development:

“One of the most demanding processes, outside of developing stamina, was to bring any other material or object onto the treadmill and create with it. It is interesting how the weight of some objects works. For example, a Cyr wheel or walking globe can hold onto the treadmill without any additional tricks.

There were magical moments, too, though. Like when the actors were afraid to move on the treadmill at higher speeds. I knew it was possible, so I jumped on the treadmill and tried to show with my own body that if we want to work with the treadmill we have to go on the edge. And that is what you can also see in the show. Magical moments when the treadmill becomes a partner and is perceived as another performer.”

The show was originally inspired by best-selling book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall; specifically, the line “We run the most when times are at their worst.” Runners aims to explore and draw parallels between the phenomenon of running in today’s world in general (it’s one of today’s top sports) and the hectic pace that modern society lives in. 

Caitlin Paige, August 2022.

Photos by Pet Chodura

Cirk La Putyka Website