Amazon, Joyce and the circus

As part of the centenary of Ulysses, German circus company Rimini Protokoll provocatively enacts the hyper-consumerism and physical exertion that drive the online retail giant

- Arifa Akbar

On the eastern outskirts of Berlin, a big top has been erected by theatre company Rimini Protokoll for a circus with a twist. These acrobatics come wrapped in metaphor and high concept: the show is about shopping giant Amazon and the processes of the virtual marketplace. Upon entering, we are given clickers to use instead of clapping to imitate the click of online transactions. We view secret footage filmed inside fulfilment centres, listen to testimonies from workers and watch piles of packages heaved across the stage.

We hear from Gisela and Dietmar Winkler, who ran a real-life circus near here, and there is a clip of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos speaking about a German circus he saw that was the inspiration behind Amazon. Comparisons between the circus and the online retailer are subtly drawn out, such as bringing a product directly to the consumer/audience and the herculean physical effort involved in the work.