Existentialism & the Big Jop
A man with erratically frizzy hair tosses three bowling pins high into the air, watched over by a precariously balanced trapeze artist and a third man sporting an even wilder mane than that of the first. But these are not merely bowling pins, nor is this a straightforward trapeze. These tumbling pins are human emotions, juggled by a young artist; the trapeze, a mid-air attempt to discover one’s own identity.
Billed as a ‘modern circus show’, Me, Myself And Us is an acrobatic spectacular which tells the story of three young men, reunited randomly in a rather uncertain location, who attempt the impossible: living together. The resulting friction between personalities gives the show more than a taste of reality. There’s the ‘Little Prince’ character, who has yet to answer his own questions and live life to the fullest. Then there’s the ‘Pierrot’ type, with his head firmly in the clouds; clinging to his trapeze the same way others hold onto their dreams. Finally, Mr Smooth explores new ways of dressing in order to forge for himself a new, truer-to-self identity.
Leaping balletically from circus to contemporary dance to music, the show even features Creedence Clearwater Revival, energetically mixed on the spot by the performers. This 20-something trio – Naël Jammal, Guillaume Biron and Florent Lestage – have known each other since their student days at circus schools in France and Montreal and collectively call themselves the Tête d’Enfant (‘head of a child’) circus company, inspired by a line in the Marcel Carné film Les Enfants Du Paradis. “We don’t want to grow up, we don’t want to give up on our emotions and intuitions,” they quip.
WHO: Tête d’Enfant circus company
WHAT: Me, Myself & Us modern circus show
WHERE: The National Circus (opposite The National Assembly)
WHEN: 6:30pm October 3
WHY: “Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going. Don’t take anything too seriously; it’ll all work out in the end.” – David Niven