Giffords Circus by Adam Horovitz

Giffords Circus review by Adam Horovitz

Minchinhampton Common

 Thursday, August 7

Giffords Circus begins slowly, with a glad-ragged clown ironing plates, knickerbockers and members of the audience as they settle into their seats, her smile shifting between sly and insouciant.

She sets the dreamlike mood off to a tee; this is a circus that rides the edges of fantasy and magic without ever becoming twee or listless. The only time that old-fashioned magic dissolves is when the extraordinarily accomplished band (who are so good they appear to spend the entire show watching the performances with a benign smile whilst their instruments play themselves) launch into a recognisably modern tune. Like Little Nemo in Slumberland you wake with a bump, only to find yourself back at the beginning of the dream with still more strangeness to come.

One cannot help but watch with increasing awe as a litany of great acts bowl past: speedy Ethiopian jugglers, eye-bogglingly costumed and utterly brilliant acrobalancers Circle of Two, a pair of rope-twirling Argentinean Gauchos so riddled with machismo and brilliance that you can see the holes, the extraordinary doll-like acrobat who dances her way up some silk drapes-more than there's room to mention here.

What makes Giffords Circus so delightful is not the brazen originality-you've probably seen something like it on TV or at a Festival-but the intimacy and style with which the whole show is carried off. The tent is so small that it feels like one has been squeezed inside a cinema screen to participate in some beautifully surreal European cartoon. At the end of the night, the audience positively bounces out of the tent; man, woman and child radiating insouciance.

There are few better ways to enjoy a hot summer evening than this.
 

© Adam Horovitz

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