MONTREAL—A circus show about fear which is making its North American premiere on Monday at Montreal’s new circus festival puts the audience right at the heart of the action.
Tabu is the product of Wales’ NoFit State troupe, which says the show is a different way of presenting a circus.
“The audience arrives and they’re on the move,” says Howard Morley, one of the clowns who will be shepherding spectators through the promenade-style spectacle.
“You will be on the move throughout the whole show. It erupts above you and behind you and suddenly it'll creep past you.”
Morley, who is also the tent master and a jack of all trades, says the audience is moved around to give them an up-close view and “make sure that nothing actually lands on their heads.”
Appropriately, the theme of the show is fear — but of a more general kind and not of being sideswiped by a clown on a speeding tricycle.
Firenza Guidi, the show’s artistic director, describes fear as the most widespread and underestimated of taboos.
“We all have a little,” she said as performers honed their acts for opening night. “If we don't have it, we're just machines.”
The show, which took some of its cues from from Gabriel García Marquez’s novel 100 Years of Solitude, doesn't dwell on an aerialist’s fear of vertigo, however, but on such things as abandonment and vulnerability.
Guidi acknowledged the troupe’s managers did wonder how fear could spawn a family friendly show when it was first proposed. But she suggests the show, which runs until July 25, turns the concept of fear on its head and actually makes it about daring.
“We create, we rehearse, we go through our process and then we open the doors to the unknown — the spectators,” Guidi said.
Tom Rack, the show’s producer, says it’s almost like the audience is participating in the show, which he described as “choreographed chaos.”
But he doesn’t want people to be afraid to attend.
“It looks anarchic and crazy but really, really, they do know what they're doing.”
Link: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/834710--tabu-invites-audience-to-explore-fear-at-montreal-circus-festival
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15-07-2010 12:21 
