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Director Shana Carroll on Duel Reality’s ability to transport audiences, and her return to the Alliance’s Coca-Cola Stage.

Ask anyone who has experienced Duel Reality before, and you may get one of two descriptions: Romeo and Juliet meets Cirque du Soleil or Shakespeare meets the circus without all the animals. Any of those descriptions have some accuracy to them, according to Shana Carroll, but there is another description most aren’t considering.

“I see it more as a sporting event. Sort of football game,” she said. “I think of it more like the soccer-type World Cup or rugby games where the fans are just so die-hard they want to kill each other.”

That was the energy she and her company, The 7 Fingers, who created and produce Duel Reality, wanted to capture.

“The telling of Romeo and Juliet as a sporting event, and, of course, using circus language. Sometimes we say a circus-infused sporting event, or a circus sporting event because the rounds are circus battles – red versus blue; the modern version of the Capulets and the Montagues.”

In 2002, Carroll, along with six other circus performers, founded The 7 Fingers. Carroll herself performed with Cirque du Soleil. The vision was that they could create a company that blended the many genres of live performance, from theater to circus and everything in between. Before circus, which she started when she was 18, Carroll’s introduction into performance was theater.

“It is where my roots, along with Gypsy Snider, another one of The 7 Fingers founders, are. As a child and a teenager, I did theater,” she said.

“Over the years, [Gypsy and I] have talked about wanting to do adaptations of various works in a circus style.”

As they devised shows, they always thought in terms of writing unique pieces of circus, using their theater and dance vocabulary. In the process, they always wondered, “what would happen if we did Romeo and Juliet.”

Eventually, as they were approached by Virgin Voyages to create a show for their new fleet of ships, they decided to make their dream real. In the summer of 2021, they debuted Duel Reality on Virgin’s Scarlet Lady.

“They had a theater that was modular in an alley configuration – like a tennis court. It just reminded me of a sports arena in a way, like a stadium,” she remembers. “Right away, like this Venn diagram when everything goes ‘ding-ding-ding’ together, everything kind of converged.”

In that moment, like in the movies or a cartoon when the light bulb lights up over a person’s head, they knew they had to do Romeo and Juliet like a sporting event, merging theater and circus together.

This is not the first time the Alliance Theatre has worked with Carroll. The Alliance’s 2023 production Water for Elephants, based on a novel about a traveling circus, required unique choreography. Carroll was part of the creative team for the show and designed the circus elements.

Coming back to Atlanta for Duel Reality is sentimental for Carroll in many ways.

“[Being in Atlanta for Water for Elephants] was like we were in camp together. You know when you have great memories of your summer camp friends? We had such a great time,” she said. “There are such fond memories from those months. It’s like going back to some beloved place.”

To be clear, Duel Reality isn’t Water for Elephants. There are some vast differences, but the same awe that audiences experienced from that show will be just as awe-inspiring, if not more, in Duel Reality.

“Romeo and Juliet is a classic. Simply put! I hope that audiences who experience DUEL REALITY will be viscerally and emotionally transported. Circus language, at least in the way I try to use it, is always metaphorically linked to the story beat. With DUEL REALITY, like in Romeo and Juliet, there is a sense that the stakes are high stakes. Whether it’s the high stakes of the battle, or the high stakes of the love, in every scene there is essentialized emotion, and the circus aspect is viscerally accompanying that story beat.”

The show, she said, is designed to transport audiences.

“Often, whenever we go to the theater, if you’re anything like me, you sit back and wonder, ‘Where is this going? What is this about? What do I think of this?’”

But when it comes to circus, she believes audiences don’t allow themselves to be transported in the same way. Not usually. Duel Reality, however, is designed to transport. Or, at least, she would love for audiences to be transported.

“When circus is seen and framed in the right way, it has that capacity to be transformative; to be life-affirming, because it shows you something that you thought was, maybe, impossible previously, as possible. That carries over to other corners of your life, and people realize everything they thought was impossible could be possible.”

Duel Reality runs on the Coca-Cola Stage February 5 through March 1, 2026 – learn more.

Life as a trapeze artist is about more than just the intense training, nomadic lifestyle, or death-defying stunts; it’s about the spontaneity of creating something new every time a performer takes to the stage. The discipline is demanding, but it fuels the passion to keep telling stories through movement. It’s what keeps the fire alive.

Cirque tour life mirrors that of any traditional touring show: demanding hours, time away from home, and exposure to different cultures and cities. This, of course, is supplemented by the rehearsal element, which emphasizes collaboration and artistic blending to achieve the best possible performance. Additionally, performers must maintain a peak physical condition to consistently execute their stunts at a high level. The job demands a constant state of physical readiness, with the ability to adapt to new disciplines at a moment’s notice.

Often, performers are introduced to movement styles that fall outside their comfort zones, each requiring a unique skill set. Silvia Dopazo, an aerialist from Spain, is currently touring as an aerial artist. The experience has expanded her artistic repertoire, exposing her to a wide range of disciplines beyond her original training, and preparing her for any future artistic endeavors. “I was a rope and tissue artist, and now I’m skating, I am doing chains, bungees… all disciplines I had never done before,” she shares.

Sophie Brandeborn, a performer with AXEL, a touring figure-skating cirque show, describes performing as a truly magical experience; one that overtakes her completely.

“For me… I can almost have an outside-of-body experience, where I see everything from a perspective outside of myself…as you get more comfortable, that’s when the beauty kicks in…when you start getting a connection with the audience. You get secure in your role.”

Duel Reality runs on the Coca-Cola Stage February 5 through March 1, 2026 – learn more.