Auckland Arts Festival 2025: Cirque Alfonse - Animal

It’s farm life, but not as we know it. Proudly from the funky backwaters of Quebec, Cirque Alfonse has cooked up a barnyard-themed circus stacked with the weirdest livestock, tractors and giant cowbells as stunt props, and a mechanical bull…just because. Did we mention the unbelievable acrobatic skills, edge-of-your-seat tricks and madcap comedy routines? What makes Animal such a winner of a show is the pure joy and unpredictability its most wholesome troupe of carnies brings to the stage — a multi-generational family of performers and musicians, from super young to sprightly in age, who just know how to put on a show.

Cirque Alfonse is a French-Canadian circus company of family and friends from the Carabinier-Lépine clans in Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, Quebec. Since 2005 the company has toured internationally with rural and carnival-inspired acts such as Timber!, Barbu and Tabarnak. Animal is a surreal tribute to growing up on a farm. Alongside traditional circus stunts, the show is performed visually through comedy skits, slapstick humour and dance. The company also plays their own instruments, performing music throughout in their native Quebecois.
 

Edgy, extremely talented and incredibly daring -Matilda Marseillaise

Cirque Alfonse’s five performers juggle a repertoire of stunts even better than they do a box of free-range eggs. -FESTMAG

Ridiculous, unadulterated fun -The Stage