Sinister Circus
For Killieween, Rhymes with Purple created a large-scale promenade circus experience that brought live performance directly into the streets of Kilmarnock. Working across multiple town-centre locations, we programmed and produced a cast of around 60 performers, combining circus, street theatre, walkabout characters and visual spectacle into an event audiences could encounter as they moved through the town.
The brief was to create something family-friendly, accessible and genuinely atmospheric, without losing the slightly darker edge that makes Halloween fun. The result was a town-centre experience built around surprise, movement and discovery, with performers appearing throughout the public space and a large-scale lighting installation helping transform familiar streets after dark.
RwP’s role covered creative development, programming, casting, producing and on-site delivery. That meant shaping the overall concept, finding the right artists, building the programme, coordinating performers and practical requirements, and making sure the whole thing worked as one event rather than a collection of unrelated acts.
Killieween is exactly the kind of project we enjoy: ambitious, public-facing and slightly unruly, with enough moving parts to require proper producing and enough creative freedom to make something audiences weren’t expecting.
