“Rothar overflows with wonder and rings its bicycle bell long after the curtain call.”
Fiona Hallenan-Barker
4.5 Stars
Venue : Branar Theatre
Sydney Festival at Sydney Opera House
Date: 17th January 2026
Rothar, the Irish Gaelic word for “bicycle,” is a joyful, word-light work from Irish company Branar that explores everything a bicycle can symbolise, sound like and become. Enacted by two endlessly inventive performers, the show fuses mime, Foley sound-making, percussion, paper and shadow puppetry, clowning and physical theatre into a tightly choreographed adventure that follows cycling adventure through town, countryside and imagination.
Timing is everything here. Gesture flows seamlessly into rhythm, rhythm into mime, mime into clowning, and clowning into narrative. Facial expressions are rubbery, bold and exquisitely detailed. Gestures carry enormous meaning, shaping both the soundscape and the visual world. The performers control lighting and sound themselves, creating a complex score that is visual, aural and emotional all at once.
There is a moment, brief and almost imperceptible, when the music of Rothar slips slightly out of sync with the hiss and chug of steam during a train sequence. It is the only beat that doesn’t land in an otherwise immaculately scored 45-minute performance, and its very rarity only highlights the extraordinary precision of what surrounds it.
Director Marc Mac Lochlainn gently ushers the audience into the world of a bike shop, greeting them warmly as the performers enter and immediately break the fourth wall. This invitation encourages young and diverse audiences to respond verbally and physically, establishing a playful convention that lasts the entire show. As the characters pull on their coats to start the day, they accidentally discover music in the movement, percussion emerging from fabric and gesture. It is silly, delightful and incredibly exact, setting the tone for everything that follows.
Elaine Mears’ costumes are both practical and evocative: variations on striped tops and overalls nod to the history of mime while supporting the show’s intense physicality and musicality. A top hat fashioned from a tyre was a particular favourite of my nine-year-old co-reviewer.
Language is used sparingly and beautifully. With minimal spoken words drawn from Gaelic, English, Italian and French, the show demonstrates how limited and confusing language can be compared to physical expression. This choice makes the performance accessible to very young viewers while offering a poetic reflection on communication itself. One can’t help but imagine how exciting it would be if Branar incorporated First Nations languages from the places they tour, adding yet another layer of connection.
Maeva Clancy’s touring set is compact and Tardis-like in its imaginative capacity. Every object on stage including spanners, ropes, and paper towel serve multiple purposes, transforming into landscapes, vehicles and instruments. A magical drawer spilling golden light launches the performers and the audience into a cycling adventure, while sepia-toned digital projections deepen the sense of whimsy and nostalgia.
Found objects reign supreme: oceans are made of paper towel, capes from plastic bags, a circus tent from a bright umbrella. A bucket hat becomes a ringmaster’s crown, and paper puppets perform daring feats worthy of any big-top spectacle, drawing gasps and applause from the audience. A rhythmic squirt of bike oil blossoms into a full train sequence, and a riotously funny paper-towel-and-leaf-blower moment leaves the crowd utterly enraptured. As my co-reviewer wisely observed, the moral of the story seems to be that anything can be music. Rothar sends its audience home eager to experiment with found objects of their own.
Performers Miquel Barceló and Moisés Mas Garcia bring formidable expertise in clowning and music composition, crafting a journey that ends, inevitably and gloriously, at the circus. Shadow puppetry in the final moments elegantly retraces the journey through sea, train and circus, all by bike, closing the loop with tenderness and beauty.
This zany, generous work is ultimately about kindness, love and wonder in a big, bold world. As Branar’s website proclaims, “If there’s no wonder around you, there can’t be wonder inside you.” Rothar overflows with wonder and rings its bicycle bell long after the curtain call.
photographer Jacquie Manning.
Fiona Hallenan-Barker, Theatre Now
4.5 bicycle bell rings out of 5
