the forgotten circus

Sissignore 1968

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05/01/22

Cirque du Soleil

(Martha Holmes. 1947)

Circus and Vaudeville Contortionist, Lily Flexmore c. 1905

Once upon a time, there was a strange circus… (redraw)

♡  CIRCUS PALS  ♡

BONUS! Rehearsal Info: The metal frame that kept the Oriental Man’s large headpiece in shape actually pierced through the material and led to a bleeding cut on Alex’s head during the first rehearsal for “Come Alive.” The costume department then added an extra layer and some velcro to prevent any more cuts.

Fairground equipment, tents and other temporary structures are often employed as devices to represent make-shift ruins and themes of fragility, vulnerability and impermanence. Canvas sits in water; ropes are pegged in to fluid land. They are constructed scenes which seem to hold different moments of time concurrently- canvas rots and weeds scramble over surfaces, but some lights remain on or have just been lit. They are spaces where furtive and obscured events have taken place but clues to this are few or misleading. And whilst they have a feeling of oppressive stillness the motile elements such as mud or water seem to be slowly moving the scenes towards a foreboding conclusion.