This irreverent theatre company is the brainchild of its three founders: Daniela Sousa (a.k.a. Daniella Vol), Michel Alex (a.k.a. Michel Gigolo) and Rui Gago (a.k.a. Dr. Apokalipse). For ten years, starting in 1994, they spanned the world in their nomadic caravan of classic custom modified vehicles, putting on larger than life firework fueled events for large corporate and musical clients.
Capitalizing on their education and self-taught artistic and craft talents, they were responsible for creating all the plays, music, props and costumes for their shows, running the itinerant troupe as a tight, small, and disciplined army. Their Custom Circus name would officially be born in 2002. Their aesthetics travel through several genres, with goth, post-apocalyptic, and diesel-punk references, creating a true and unique Cabaret Rock atmosphere to the stage plays.
In December 2003, the need for a more permanent base arose and the troupe bought an old 1940’s Portuguese Army armory base, and the Nirvana Studios project was born. Today, twenty years later it is a full-blown cultural center, with the old warehouses transformed in high-end recording studios, art galleries, and working artistic studios. Around them shipping containers were used to build a series of “band boxes”, small rehearsal studios that today boast 300 resident bands.
Two old streetcars were transformed into a diner and the custom shop. An old 1903 locomotive, turned into a beautiful artistic installation, stands at the entrance of the compound, a testament to the perseverance and artistic prowess of this group. The central warehouse took eight years to be transformed into the iconic Custom Café Theatre, where the troupe has staged hundreds of shows for tens of thousands of spectators.
And as if theatre, music, and large-scale artistic installations weren’t enough, there is a vast literary universe spawned from the artistic activities of the group. Michel Alex has beautifully taken the backstories of their plays and created a treasure trove of written stories that go from the intensely dark gothic narrative of Le Cabaret Rock to the post-apocalyptic dystopia of the Atland Saga, all published in Portuguese, creating a fictional context for the scenes played on the Custom Café stage. It is our honor and pleasure here at Brodom Publishing to call them our partners, as we bring these amazing narratives to English-speaking audiences around the world.
