Last Updated on August 4, 2025
An evening of skill, laughter and chaos at a tea party – with apples
Gandini Juggling brought back their hit show Smashed last night at the Peacock Theatre and an hilarious evening ensued, with a demonstration of the most skilful juggling performed to a wonderful variety of music, with increasing inventiveness in the incredible routines, with a descent into hysterical chaos for the finale. It is a piece of contemporary circus which blends juggling with dance, with the use of one hundred apples and a tea party, to which the audience has been invited. It was a mesmerising performance, the funniest and cleverest show I have seen for a long time.
Smashed is Gandini Juggling’s signature work and is a series of scenes, each to a different song or piece of music, that looks at the varied types of love, including rivalry, jealousy, lost love and rejection and is a kind of social commentary with a nostalgic and cinematic feel. In this respect, it pays homage to German choreographer and neo-expressionist dancer Pina Bausch who was the inspiration for the work, which was commissioned in 2010 and created by Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä-Hokkala, who cofounded Gandini Juggling in 1992. Sean Gandini is the Director and Kati Ylä-Hokkala the Co-Artistic Director, and they are the heart of the group. Kati is a former champion rhythmic gymnast from Finland who was taught to juggle by Sean, whom she met when he was performing in street theatre in Covent Garden. She is now an iconic juggler who beautifully combines movement and complex juggling. The company they formed has a small core of six or so jugglers which can be expanded up to twenty, and they give shows all over the world. Currently, they have performed over six thousand shows in fifty countries. Their company fuses the best juggling with dance, rhythmic choreography, physical theatre and humour, both provocative and slapstick. Their unison moments and their timing are both incredible to see.
On entering the theatre, the stage was set with nine black wooden chairs and a hundred red apples in a simple black set, two trays on either side with tea things – plates, various crockery and lovely teapots – and some flowers; all ready for the tea party. The juggling troupe entered, nine men and two women, the men dressed in 1930s suits and the women in shortish black dresses and high heels, and they danced their choreographed, intricate juggling dance to the laid-back and funny song, ‘I’ve Always Wanted to Waltz in Berlin’ (written by Jack Little in 1943). They promenade around the stage many times juggling with three apples, each time doing a slightly different routine started by Kati, jugging the apples first in front of them and then passing one higher or one behind, then one-handed, and finally juggling the apples with their arms in the air; all this is done effortlessly in rhythm until they eventually all sit down on the black chairs. Next came the routine to ‘I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones)’, (Hoosier Hot Shots), a humorous and clever ensemble juggling piece where there was a lot of flirting going on, the apples being placed on their eyes and chests.
The next work was set to Bach’s French Suite No. 2 in C Minor and it had the most beautiful armography and amazingly intricate patterns. The women were being pursued by the desperate men in some great solos, but who were suitably ignored by the aloof and elegant women.
Up next was the routine to ‘The End of The World’, played by the American jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and sung by Robin Lynn Holcomb (born 1954), an original hit for Skeeter Davis. In this the women were performing a lovely routine but surrounded by the men who tease and provoke them and try to put them off by interfering in the routine, moving their heads and arms, and stealing the apples, all extremely intricate, but still the women carried on. This work is the start of the descent into chaos.
The routine to ‘Stand By Your Man’ by Tammy Wynette, was the next work tackling the dark theme of women’s humiliation. In this, the two women crawl in front of the seated men, who juggle on the women’s backs.
In the remaining works, I particularly liked the routine in which one performer juggled brilliantly with a curled-up baton/newspaper and attacked the others with it, and the one where the men were ‘punished’ for their misdemeanours, which was very funny. The show continued to be very amusing but thought-provoking at the same time. The apples were starting to be eaten and the jugglers were putting each other off deliberately, and the cries came – ‘drop’, ‘boring’, ‘rubbish’. Crockery and apples were flying across the stage, in hysterical chaos. I loved the line cried out by Sean, ‘Not the teapots!’, and he proceeded to juggle them and of course, they came crashing to the floor. The show ended with the floor covered in broken apples and smashed crockery, and the audience in hysterics.
The performers came back onto the stage after the show to ‘clean up’ and greet members of the audience, and they were also handing out juggling books. Gandini Juggling teaches in leading circus schools and encourages us all to take up juggling. As I exited the theatre, I noticed there were juggling balls for sale in the foyer and I was very tempted to buy a set…
I very much recommend catching Gandini Juggling at another of their shows. They are currently touring Europe, Canada and the USA with other productions; Heka, Life, Smashed 2, The Games We Play, Rollercoaster and Come and See Us. They are also performing at the Edinburgh Fringe from 31st July to 26th August with their show Rollercoaster.
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