|
|
|
|
|
Poetry
in motion at the Circo Bidone
|
We
go to the Mantua Literature Festival for a very
special circus. The Circo Bidone, Europe's last
horse-drawn circus, draws us into its magical world
. . .
|
 For
two days (5th and 6th September)
Mantua
played host to a rather unusual
circus; one with few performers but
with lots of colourful caravans with bright-red
geraniums spilling from the windows. There was little
stardust to be had at the Circo Bidone but the air
was full of echoes
of Fellini instead. The Circo Bidone
is poetry in motion, told partly in French
- the show was devised by François Rauline
- partly Italian, but mostly in that universal language,
inherited from the commedia
dell’arte tradition, which the circus
has made its own. Inanimate objects are treated
like living creatures, men like animals and animals
like men all to the sounds of the carpenter's very
own 'string quartet'.
Cabaret, theatre and music come together to create
a imaginary journey through a series of magical
worlds. The seal-man. half-acrobat, half-juggler
makes his white balls dance through the air; the
ropewalking spider-man flies free from the
rope which forms a snake and then a noose around
him; the elf-man delights us as he makes
three simple sticks twist and turn to the music.
The music is played by a Romanian trio who
conjure up an eclectic mix of styles bringing us
from the Gyspy camp to Eastern Europe, to Arab souks
and back to French cafès all with an added
twist (an accordion plays the theme from Mission
Impossible as the background to a sketch set on
a bed of nails).
 A
circus isn't a circus without a clown – and
there he is with his sad smile and ironic laugh.
There's no desertion of the circus animals, they're
there too - a hotchpotch collection of chickens,
monkeys, ducks and a white horse, all quite tame
but still animal enough to inject life into the
sketches. And when the sketches involve chicken
shit you can't complain. Or can you?
Don't miss
the greatest show on earth thanks to ItaliaPlease
|
| |
| by
ELENA
GUARNERI |
|
September
2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE SURVIVOR'S 
