I Have My Demons Have Me is a production by Formosa Circus Art (FOCA) under the direction of British circus performance director Timothy Lenkiewicz. It is an international collaborative project, the first of its kind initiated by a Taiwanese contemporary circus.

I Have My Demons Have Me grapples with the subject of how circus artists overcome their fear. The storytelling blends together circus art, drama and dance as well as various performance techniques and theatrical elements. It lays bare the dark side hidden within each and every one of us that rarely – if ever – comes to light.

FOCA use circus skills to interpret their real emotions when facing fear, testing their mettle and demonstrating their prowess with diabolos, hats, Cyr wheel, cube, Devil sticks and chair balancing as well as performing highly complex and dangerous skills such as human pyramid, somersault and hand to hand. In addition to working with their own fears, the performers draw inspiration from folk tales, such as the Taiwanese “Auntie Tigress”, the Amis tribe’s “Alikakay the Child Eater”, and “The Monster Who Grew Small” from Africa. Throughout the show characters from different stories come across each other learning to face life’s challenges together.

Whilst I Have My Demons Have Me takes fear as its central motif, it is at once an energetic, inspiring and thrilling performance. Throughout rehearsals, director and performers work closely together to unravel layer upon layer of fear present in their lives, to reveal exactly who and what they fear, and to find out the extent to which such fear can influence their everyday experience.

As the stage switches scene to scene, I Have My Demons Have Me subverts normal conception of fear, offering a glimpse into our own timidity.