Rouge

Thought-provoking and dramatic, Rouge is an extraordinary show about memory in a country where younger generations have grown up believing that the Khmer Rouge and their reign of terror in the 1970s are just myth.

A collaboration between Cambodian circus school Phare Ponleu Selpak and French dance company Compagnie UBI, Rouge features a cast of exceptional young male performers and a two-piece gamelan band. These daring young acrobats rewind and replay memories of their country's recent history to remarkably powerful effect.

Phare Ponleu Selpak was set up in 1994 by eight young Cambodians who had spent their childhoods in the refugee camps at the Thai border. They gathered together children at risk including streets kids, trafficked children and orphans and, using the skills they had been taught in the refugee camps, helped them to reintegrate into society.

Phare Ponleu Selpak offers training in circus arts and now 20 of those kids are young adults who have become outstanding professional artists performing in Cambodia and around the world.