Big Apple Circus

[redbird]

I took cattitude to the circus this weekend, as a (belated) birthday gift.

The Big Apple Circus is a one-ring circus: mostly clowning and acrobatics, with some small animal acts (both small acts and relatively small animals: no tigers or elephants here, though there were a few horses). They've been going for a few decades now; the first time I went, they were the upstart in a landscape dominated by the three-ring extravaganza of Ringling Bros. Now, they've got a regular spot for their tent at Lincoln Center every late fall/early winter, along with touring. But they still have the one real advantage over Ringling Brothers: you don't spend time worrying, if I look at this cool thing, am I missing something even better in one of the other rings? You can just watch and enjoy.

They do some amusing variations on the traditional stage magician "saw a woman in half" routine, some of it laughing at the "magician" (the clown plays the "magician's assistant" role). Partway through the second act, I was thinking that while I was having fun, there was too high a clowning:acrobatics ratio. Then the trapeze artists came out.

The trapeze work was impressive, and being close is definitely an advantage here. We weren't in the first couple of rows, but the tent is small enough that every seat is close for most purposes (though we might have missed a subtlety or two). The trapeze act ended with each of the acrobats in turn swinging some more, letting go, and landing neatly in the net. Except for the last one, who bounced off the net back up to the trapeze and swung for another arc before letting go again, landing in the net, and stepping down.

Large parts of this year's show are connected by a narrative about a mad scientists' machine that will visualize a person's dreams. (Cattitude's immediate reaction was "I'm thinking of an elephant.")


One of the animal acts was trained dogs, introduced as the imagination of a rather scruffy dog, who was supposed to be getting a belated trip to the groomer. We saw a neater dog of about the same size and shape. Then a larger dog.

The next animal that came out was in a little wooden toy car: the door opened and a porcupine emerged. It wandered genially out of the box and along a low wooden walkway before being gently persuaded into a different box and taken back offstage. Next out was a capybara; rodent of unusual size or no, it was less impressive than the porcupine, and not as well trained. The pig that followed was something of an anticlimax.

Another narrative was of a girl who had volunteered from the audience to wear the magic helmet for visualizing things, gotten shy, and been offered a tour of the machine "backstage." It becomes clear fairly quickly that she's part of the circus, of course (as I think were a few of the people sitting in the front row and interacting with the clowns). At one point they "lose" her, and then she comes out again. I was still surprised when she climbed the rope ladder with the trapeze artists.

Definitely a good time. The circus will be in Lincoln Center through January 8; after that, they're doing two weeks in New Jersey in March, then Boston from March 22 through May 13, and Queens from May 22–June 17. Information, tickets, etc. at http://www.bigapplecircus.org/

Note: they use strobes at one point. There are also significant flashing lights in another scene, plus a lot of children in the audience waving toy light sabers and people using cameras with flashes.

Comments

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Having worked there roughly 20 years ago, I shall have to make a field trip.