Cirque Alfonse is a young circus company from Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez in the province of Quebec, established in 2005. Its founding members have all worked with some of the most renowned “nouveau cirque” companies around the world. This young company is comprised of a team of professional acrobats graduated from the École nationale de cirque de Montréal, as well as a professional dancer, an ex-skiing champion and three talented and versatile musicians. This brave and creative group of young performers is blazing a creative path that no one has yet dared to explore, blending the arts and techniques of the circus and infusing them with the most picturesque facets of traditional Quebec folklore.

The story starts in 2005 when the Cirque Alfonse project is created and first takes shape. In 2006, the company launches its first show La Brunante. The show is of short duration but it serves as a very successful first experience. It will later become the foundation for Timber ! After La Brunante, the members of the company each pursue their own solo careers with Montreal’s Les 7 doigts de la main, the Cirque du Soleil, Cirkus Cirkör of Sweden, the Cirque Starlight of Switzerland and the Montreal dance company Bouge de là, before starting work in 2010 on their second creative project, a show called Timber! that they premiered at Montréal Complètement Cirque in July 2012. And in July 2014 BARBU : Electro-trad Cabaret also premiered at Montréal Complètement Cirque. This production has since been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe for one month, at London’s Wondergound at the Southbank Centre in London England and toured twice to Australia including engagements at the Perth Fringe and the Adelaide Fringe and a one-month sold-out run at the Sydney Opera House. TABARNAK is the company’s fourth production and premiered in July 2017 at Montréal Complètement Cirque.

Cirque Alfonse is represented by GAMI/Simonds LLC in the USA.

“Nothing is ever the way you imagined when you go to see a show by Cirque Alfonse. With this fifth creation, entitled Animal: A Farm Story, we plunge into an agricultural-industrial universe populated by all kinds of farm animals. Humour and self-mockery are always on the program, with an exciting trad, soul and funk live soundtrack.” --Journal de Montréal, QC July 2021

“Ridiculous, unadulterated fun” —The Stage Edinburgh 22Aug2022.pdf

“Cirque Alfonse has become a Fringe staple” —The Scotsman_18Aug2022_EdinburghFringe.pdf

“The farm is having a good time! Calf, cow, pig, chickens... it’s a complete menagerie that Cirque Alfonse has invited on stage for its latest creation, Animal, a delightful agricultural fiesta where music and theatricality prevail over acrobatic prowess.”
--La Presse, Montréal, QC July 2021

ANIMAL: A Farm Story takes us on a journey of discovery through a series of slightly surreal farm fables served up with a touch of irreverence, impressive virtuosity and the company’s familiar comic touch. In this re-invented agricultural world, the farm is turned upside down and the barn turned inside out!

A gentleman farmer has surrounded himself with some familiar but slightly outlandish creatures: the chickens have teeth, the ducks are slightly menacing and the cows are kicking up a fuss. In this “farm fantasy”, the imagination conjures up stories from childhood, rural life proves to be both energetic and poetic and clichés are joyfully turned on their head.

Yet again, the clan of family and friends that make up Cirque Alfonse has favoured its multidisciplinary approach where circus, song, dance and theatre all come together, driven by original live music … an irresistible mix of trad and soul that the troupe calls ‘agricultural funk!

A production for young and old alike, ANIMAL is the farm gone haywire!