Circus

As it is the last weekend before the kids go back to school we had planned on doing something a bit fun with them. Such an opportunity presented itself in the form of the Moscow State Circus which had rolled into town as part of their UK tour. In fact, it was my mother-in-law who spotted this – I think she has always harboured a longing to run away to the circus. As it was, the most she managed was crossing the Berlin Wall. I don’t think this involved any death defying feats of acrobatic ability (although it must have taken a little nerve).

When I was growing up the “circus coming to town” was one of those events that seemed to carry a certain aura around with them. These were almost always British based circus troupes – I can certainly remember going to Billy Smart’s and the Chipperfield’s circus. Circuses have certainly changed since the 1970’s. They have always been about spectacle but back in the 70s, whilst there were lots of clowns and  acrobats, many of the acts would involve animals. Some of these I quite enjoyed: performing horses and dogs seemed to quite enjoy the event whereas elephants seemed a bit more long suffering. However, much of the spectacle and daring-do was related to lion taming and the like (essentially some git with a whip taking the piss out of dangerous wild animals). One event I can recall being much vaunted was a boxing kangaroo – this sounded great but consisted of Skippy with his fore-arms stuffed in boxing gloves being goaded by a clown. He didn’t box so much as bugger off as fast as possible – it was actually a rather distressing sight.

The Moscow State Circus is a very different animal – for a start, there are no animals involved apart from one very small dog used in one sequence by the clowns. The clowns are also very different and very far removed from the misanthropic child-molesters that I recall from circuses of old (I know they were meant to appeal to kids but I would honestly have preferred being left alone with the lions and tigers). The Muscovite clowns are much closer to traditional mime artists and also include elements of magic in their sequences. As well as providing sufficient time for the other artists to change their costumes and prepare their acts they also provide a running theme which connects the various performances into a greater theme.

The real mainstay of the Moscow State Circus lies in traditional circus arts – acrobats, jugglers, trapeze artists and  all manner of gymnastic display. In common with many modern circus performers (Cirque du Soleil springs to mind) the acts are as much about artistic expression as they are about death-defying stunts and it makes the whole experience more spectacular. When the stunts come one after another it becomes clear that they aren’t that death-defying whereas with the Moscow State Circus there is the definite impression that if one of the jumps or flips went wrong then they probably wouldn’t be doing another one any time soon.

Anyway, as family entertainment goes I think it really works as three generations of our family loved the experience. And without a marsupial pugilist in sight.