Interview: Agate and Adrien, ‘N.Ormes’

Ahead of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 we’re chatting with a range of creatives who will be heading to the city over August to find out more about their shows. Today we’re chatting with Agate and Adrien about their piece, N.Ormes.

Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far..

We graduated from the Circus School of Quebec in 2018. We started our career working for well established circus companies in Quebec, but we we felt the need to transmit our social and environmental values through a more committed circus. We took 3 years to create our own show, N.Ormes, and we are now touring it around the world!

What is your show about?

For a long time, We suffered from impostor syndrome, feeling either too heavy to fly, or too skinny to base. We compared ourselves a lot with the typical model of a hand to hand duo, which we’re not.. Until we realized our strength lay elsewhere, we then explored and developed our own language in our acrobatic lifts. N.Ormes is an hour-long circus show that highlights this research through some never-before-seen acrobatic exchanges. It challenges the audiences to question their own assumptions through a touching and intimate journey that will move each and every one with a perfect blend of tears and laughter. The show skilfully combines acrobatics and dance, as the audience follows the two protagonists and their relationship, navigating between power struggles.

What was the inspiration for the show and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?

The inspiration of the show came in 2020, after 5 years of working together, while we weretaking our measurements together for some costumes. Even if Adrien is a lot taller thanAgathe, we realised that we had the same circumference measurements! The hips, chest,waist, arms, thighs...Everything ! So we started wondering, Why is Adrien the base and Agathe the flyer ? What would happen if we exchanged roles? Personality wise, who is actually more inclined to base of fly ? And mainly what gender biases are ruling our practice. This initial questioning led us to a fruitful journey, and 3 year long creation that completely changed us, our duo identity, our relation to our body, capacities.

Our take on the world has evolved as well, and we now want to share, more than ever, the product of this journey and hopefully overthrow some preconceptions on the way.

What made you want to take this to the Fringe?

Last year was our first time at the fringe, and we had so much fun that we decided to do it all again? We are proud to be playing next to such amazing artists and companies. It’s an honour to be part of an international festival of this scale and this is the perfect opportunity for us to get visibility and share our work with as many people as possible.

Apart from seeing your show, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?

There are so many shows to discover! The fringe is a nice place to challenge yourself into going to see shows that you would normally not go. We also have many circus friends that are presenting really good works, including ‘’Nova’’ from Les Foutoukours, ‘’Ghost Light’’ from Machine de cirque, and other amazing shows as ‘’How to Mate: The Ted XXX Talk’’ or ‘’Bill’s 44th’’.

Why should people book to see your show?

Well, that’s an interesting question ! I believe what touches and surprises our audience the most is to go to a circus show expecting solely entertainment and getting out of it this profoundly inspiring and touching journey where the acrobatics makes the show accessible to each and every one while serving a bigger message. Plus where else do you see a 6 feet tall guy standing and chilling on the head of his 5 feet tall partner?

When and where can people see the show?

We will be playing at Roxy Upstairs, Jul 31 Aug 1-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-25.