An acrobatic journey through Gustav Mahler’s songs.

A delight for the eyes and ears – one of the world's great performing arts companies – Circa – returns to Bergen with a dynamic fusion of dance, acrobats, music and theatre. At once epic and intimate, poetic and corporeal, this is total theatre at its finest. Be prepared to be wowed over with this symphony of music and bodies in flight – a prayer for the soul’s transcendence reconceived as a thrilling tale for our times.

In 2023, Circa performed at the Bergen International Festival with their acclaimed Humans 2.0. With Urlicht Primal Light, they shape a unique performance through the lens of Tyrolean chamber ensemble Franui’s Mahlerlieder album. One of the most performed and recorded composers of all time, Gustav Mahler’s music is given dynamic physical form through Yaron Lifschitz’s inventive choreography.

This is no ordinary live performance, rather a magical playful refashioning of Mahler’s 1899 song (part of the Austrian composer’s Second Symphony) where the classical and the contemporary come together infused with flashes of jazz and folk music.

Joined by young acrobats from Bergen’s circus school Cirkus Balance, Franui and Circa’s transnational collaboration is a moving contemplation of the power of faith and art.