The Impact of International circus on British practitioners and audiences.
When speaking on the effect International Circus has had - is having in the UK I think Process will emerge as a key issue. Rather than list the influences I'm going to try and point up how Theatre & Circus is for me not only the way forward, but perhaps the major influence, and also suggest that in the UK there are already in former traditional circus organisations - many who welcome and embrace the impact of new influences.
I'd like to go back to 1976. This was the dawn of Circus Roncalli in Germany, Bernhard Paul's phenomenon created with Andre Heller. It was a "Circus of Dreams", the vision of your childhood circus, the wagons that rolled by night, that magical village that mushroomed while you slept. The clown with broken heart longed for the girl on the trapeze…. you know the scenario. Of course, this circus had never existed, even in the pages of "British Circus Life", a wonderful evocation of tenting in the '40's, the mud, blood and spit are there. Roncalli was designer circus - for the audience, at the front the old fashioned walk-up, beautifully crafted wagons, colour and light… magic and dreams. Behind the scenes contemporary transport, prime movers - a powerhouse of technology. This was CIRCUS ILLUSION - Theatre awakening the circus world to possibilities. By drawing on the arts of the theatre, composed music, mise en scene, costume design, effective and created lighting design….. the circus could be re-invented.
In the UK at this time, the circus was in the doldrums. The Big Shows, Chipperfields, Smarts and Bertram Mills had come off the road due to impossible economics and the few remaining family shows seemed to spend more time on promoting the raffle that developing the show. There were some notable exceptions and I think this conference should not under-estimate the driving energy and passion continually demonstrate, often under impossible conditions, by Gerry Cottle - who it seemed alone tried to keep circus alive.
With eyes on Roncalli - UK directors sought to emulate the success of the German event. Yet what they saw seemed to be the design not the philosophical, marketing or theatrical starting point of Paul and Heller. So IMITATION was reflected in show wagons, fencing, old fashioned lanterns, even throwing 'feel-good' confetti over the arriving guests. Inside the Big-Top the British Circus was beginning to shift emphasis.
The grass is always greener on the other side - of course and International Circus has always been held up as a model of excellence. I was always told that if I wanted to see a real circus then KNIE BARNUM or TOGNI would astonish…… here we have been constantly told that our circus is the poor relation.
Whilst considering the subject - the impact of international circus, I have to suggest that I believe it is more its approaches to creation - an intellectual and philosophical starting point for new work as opposed to our long held format of a sequential parade of often excellent individual acts.
It is wrong to say that International Circus alone is responsible for the revival of interest or shaping the form - the origins and continuity of circus arts are as old as society. Bakhtin called images of popular-festivals "A thousand year old language of fearlessness", look at bull leaping feats of Ancient Cretans, outcast women jugglers of Ancient Egypt - Medieval Street Performers ….. the skills have always been valued. Even the Aztecs had acrobatic performance demonstrations!
Before returning to the contemporary influence of foreign advancements, I recall a seminar when the eminent theatre historian C Walter-Hodges was detailing the architecture and ground plans of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on London's South Bank in the late 1500's. He was trying to explain that the nearest point of reference he could use for us to imagine the Elizabethan stage - audience configuration was to enter a Circus Big-Top and look around the arena. At that moment the analogy made sense. The Elizabethan Stage was a prototype relationship between the spectator and performer that would emerge as circus and inherit playing traditions evolved throughout the Middle Ages from Inn-Yards, Mystery Plays in Cathedral precincts and travelling companies of players.
All those influences pre-date Philip Astley's spatial experiments at London's Halfpenny Hatch and even in June 1768 was blending theatre and performance to create shows. A thematic approach involved comedy and plot with a thin story-line based on a piece that had appeared in comic prints. It told of a London tailor journeying a few miles out of town to Brentford, in order to cast his vote for the radical John Wilkes standing for election to Parliament. Astley appeared as the tailor Billy Button and, in role, demonstrated an incompetent rider unable to mount his horse, when he does it is, at first, unable to move. The horse gallops off, throws the rider and chases him around the arena. THEATRICALITY IN A CIRCUS CONTEXT - CIRCUS IN A THEATRE CONTEXT.
Astley later introduced other acts from the street and fairground repertoire and subsequently included a range of other features including fireworks, fountains, shadow-puppets and epic stagings of dramatic reconstructions such as The Fall of The Bastille and other military confrontations.
One can imagine enthusiasts of the form viewing these developments with the same excitement and perhaps cynicism as contemporary viewers wonder at the continued expansion of CIRQUE DU SOLEIL in to building with 'O' The Aquatic Spectacle… whatever next?
I wanted to go back to underline that despite the importance of International developments the roots of contemporary circus lie firmly in the theatre evolution of those early years.
In Europe in the early '80's it seems to me that Circus in four years made a huge cultural jump from 'minor art' to 'high art' renewing circus forms. Largely because of the support and intervention of the French Ministry of Education and Culture to create a school which would rank alongside the theatre's Conservatoire Nationale and the L'Ecole de Strasbourg and for dance l'Ecole du ballet de L'Opera (Paris). The aim of the school was to develop a new kind of circus professional - to produce a corps of circus artists capable of REDEFINING and RE-ANIMATING the concept of Circus in France through technical and artistic excellence. The cry of the school was 'NEW CIRCUS'.
In the UK a sociological viewpoint led to circus being considered as Entertainment For the Lower Classes and , therefore, less noble than the theatre. We forget the place of Circus in painting - Picasso - for example; in music - Stravinsky… we could admire the art but not go to the circus.
The Art was utilised in theatre - for example in the RSC's 1995 Faust, the metaphor of the trapeze dominated….. in Opera, Ballet… but the interest was in the performer and not in the form, message or structure of the Circus.
in France the pioneering initiatives of GRUSS and FRATELLINI did much to open up new possibilities towards the opening of the School of Chalons and in its turn that became an important alternative to ex-Soviet aesthetics. Here was a new marriage of Circus Technique and the Dramatic Arts.
The direct descendants of the new approach can be seen in BIG APPLE CIRCUS (New York) Ecole National des Arts Du cirque from Guy Caron in 1991 - Cirque Du Soleil and, of course, the Poetic new companies of Archaos, Zingaro, Cirque O, Cirque Du Dr. Paradis, Baroque and Plume.
This list has proved personally very influential but of all the above I cite ARCHAOS as the major influence in the UK prior to CIRQUE SOLEIL. Its visits to Edinburgh Festival in the early 1990's rejuvenated the form and attracted a new young audience who previously y would shun anything circus. Other reflections of ARCHAOS could be seen across the UK - how many chain-saw jugglers erupted - how many anarchic clowns with a sense of danger threatened audiences?
The legacy of Archaos remains with the direct hand of Pierrot Bidon in Gerry Cottle's Circus of Horrors - incorporating an individual approach by a youthful company, the visual and aural concept demonstrates clearly the influential legacy of Archaos, and the way in which this director can shape a show - theme is paramount, concept and design…. Roncalli - the Dark Side.
For International Circus to really have a lasting effect in the UK we must ask the fundamental question - where are the CREATORS?
Because of a history of Devaluing Circus - theatre directors largely only incorporate skills into their work. Circus Creation has largely been left to those without a grounding in the SKILLS OF THEATRE - DIRECTING, DESIGN, LIGHTING and SOUND DESIGN, COMPOSITION, CHOREOGRAPHY - FUSION - all vital ingredients in theatre but rarely seen working in HARMONY in the Circus arenas of the UK.
UK Circus still looks with envy at Europe and North America but fears the transition to the new - a case in point is the recent revival of BILLY SMART's CIRCUS.
In the 50's & 60's Smart's reflected the razzmatazz spectacle of the heydays of RBBB - huge specs, floats, aerial ballet, mighty herds of elephants etc Yet in its new form it has returned as a classic one-ring affair in beautifully created surroundings. Modelled on Cirque Arletle Gruss - Knie & Roncalli. Yet despite a series of very good acts… it lacked cohesion and failed to find an audience on its tour last year.
Smart's prices reflected a determination to draw a theatre going audience - yet its marketing reflected an approach more suited to the traditional travelling shows of the 70's. With a Director fusing the work together, establishing motif, design and conception, Smart's could have been a beacon for the future….. without this guide the show was elaborate variety and may or may not re-appear, SO CLOSE - yet not quite there.
When talking of International influences - the large scale - tons of MSC, again a Cottle promotion & Phillip Gandey's CDC have brought audiences back into Big-Tops to see extravagant productions of outstanding artistry.
Perhaps they lack conceptualisation but they have plenty of thrills & style. Have you seen the current MSC - a big show with high production standards. I would also cite Vladimier Kehkial's ECLIPSE for Amanda Thompson as important developments.
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL has taken the UK by storm - I learn in the news that a television contract with Granada will create a series of stunning spectaculars for our living rooms. YET EVEN CIRQUE did not play in its original tenting from here, after a disastrous start on South Bank, rather taking the already well-established opulence & grandiose trapping of RAH. A building already appealing to the affluent, high-spending theatre and concert goers. IT MADE ABSOLUTE SENSE and NOW CDS WILL BRIND THE FULL TENTING EXPERIENCE WITH QUIDAM sending Shockwaves across the British Circus world. A confection of jealousy, anger, accusations of candy-floss dressing for poor acts greets the Company. Such is the price of success.
How many UK circuses have I seen in the past 3 years using Cirque derived music, Cirque conceptions for acts and a clear Virque house style. I've even seen a clone of the Nouvelle Experience set design!
This is negative impact for the future I hope that the impact of International Circus is to stimulate the process of re-invention to find its own mode of expression. There is only one Cirque Baroque - Cirque Plume - highly individual approaches and the beauty of international developments enables a Cirque Du Soleil to exist alongside Cirque ICI, Cirque Gosh etc… Perhaps we may find that Chamber Circus is right but let's not forget that Circus historically has produced spectacle, epic, thrilling, multi-disciplinary theatre and with encouragement from critics, funders and a hungry public we should start with a clean sheet and explore how Circus can work for today without lifting from others.
WE NEED TO ENCOURAGE UK AUDIENCES TO REDISCOVER OUR CIRCUS AND EXPERIENCE ITS NEW FORM, enjoying all manifestations - no one group of theorists has the right to own circus.
In our work at Playbox Theatre we seek to combine a love of language with an instinctive feel for the theatrical influence by dramatic, choreographic and Circus arts employing the continuum structure.
Do we define as Theatre - Circus - Performance?
I see little difference.
To return finally to C Walter-Hodges Elizabethan Theatre reconstruction, THE ARENA WAS THE CENTRE OF LIFE…ABOVE THE STAGE THE HEAVENS… BELOW THE STINKING PIT, HELLMOUTH & TORMENT. On to the Stage erupted CLOWNING, PASSIONATE HIGH-DRAMA, LYRIC COMEDY & STUDIES OF THE HUMAN CONDITION OFTEN PRESENTED IN EXPERIMENTAL FORM.
With Cirque Baroque, Cirque Plume, les Arts Sauts, Zingaro, Cirque Du Soleil and so on the concept is again demonstrating that exploration of the human landscape through Circus & Theatre fusion is a way forward that everyone needs to consider to advance the craft in the UK, but remember that in this country there are large circus organisations, passionate about their work - seeking new directors and ever keen to explore new possibilities. In France, BIDON & BOUGLIONE combine the new and traditional with a show like B Comme… Beethoven - Could it happen here? With imagination YES!
The influence of Internationalism on home-grown talent together with creators from Circus, Theatre & Dance is, for me - the most exciting manifestation of IMPACT.
Stewart McGill