I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 15, 2019] 42Ft-A Menagerie of Mechanical Marvels

It has been a while since we’ve been to see a cirque.  For a time it seemed like we were seeing some kind of theatrical spectacle every six months or so.  S. decided to take her Scout troop to see this show and I was super excited to tag along.  Because RVCC has some amazing shows and the price is always right.

Cirque Mechanics are based in San Francisco and they have several shows that they put on.  But at heart

The shows, rooted in realism, display a raw quality, rarely found in modern circus, that makes their message timeless and relevant.  The stories are wrapped in circus acrobatics, mechanical wonders and a bit of clowning around.

That was absolutely true tonight.  This show specialized in strength, balance, physics (and the defiance of physics) and lots of humor.

There was a story that ran through the production.  A man (the clown Justin Therrien) comes up to the gates of Cirque Mechanics.  He peeks in through the back curtain as the show ends.  It’s clear he wants to join the circus.  While he is introducing himself to one of the performers, he does an amazing routine with his suitcase.  He suddenly made it immovable.  It was truly amazing.  There is nothing to the bit (although when I tried it at home, I found it impossible to do it convincingly) but it was just amazing.

Then the cast comes out, they spin the Circus’ ring 180 degrees and we can see the circus properly as they get ready to start the next show.

A circus ring is 42 feet in diameter–the measure of the circus ring for 250 years when Englishman Philip Astley discovered that horses galloping inside this ring provide the ideal platform for acrobatic feats.

This being a circus, there were of course acrobats and juggling and a strong man.

The juggling was fun to see–although I can’t help thinking that the juggling is always the most fraught act in a circus.  Messing up in juggling is (almost) never life threatening and you do hundreds of passes.  It’s easy to mess up (which they did), but it’s also forgivable.  Especially when the juggler does some amazing things while juggling.

The cirque has a mechanical horse, Rosebud.  It is very cool–a three-wheeled bicycle with a wooden horse attached.  As the front wheel rotates, it actually looks like the horse is trotting.  The Captain of the Cirque (Wes Hatfield) somehow made the horsecycle rotate perfectly smoothly (through a bar attached to the bike) while sitting in the middle of the ring [we were trying to imagine just how he did this remarkably unimpressive-looking-but-probably-rather-difficult feat.  Meanwhile, one of the jugglers (I believe Tatiana Vasilenko) climbed on the horsecycle and proceeded to juggle three, four, five balls.  The most impressive part was when she leaned her body backward (see picture) lowering herself to the platform and then somehow rising back up to a standing position all the while continuing to juggle the balls.  I was impressed simple that she could lift herself like that.

The first acrobatic act featured a man on a trapeze and a woman basically hanging off of him and doing a full trapeze routine while he was holding her aloft.  It was an amazing display of strength and dexterity.  The two trapeze artists were (I think) Kae Henning and Javen Mungun Ulambayar (Mooj), both of whom were so muscular it was hard to fathom.

Throughout the show Therrien returned to perform small entre-acts, like the “zombie cape” which moved on its own (not as impressive as the suitcase, but still cool).

Then out came the strong man. Tulga Battulga Battogtokh (from Mongolia!).  He had a golden orb.  I rather wish it was explained (and it is in the program but I didn’t see it) that these were bowling balls.  He dropped it on a piece of wood and showed that it was heavy and solid when it splintered.  He then proceeded to juggle three of them over his head, on his body, catching them on the back of his neck.  It was pretty amazing.

Then there was lengthy, humorous piece with crowd participation Therrien brought a (very responsive) man up on stage to do a hilarious mimed trapeze routine.  It would never work to describe, but it was very funny.

The first act ended with a bit more juggling, this time on a spinning device on which some of the acrobats leapt around and did all kinds of feats of strength.

Then came the Intermission.  When the show returned, Therrien came out and “hung” posters on the wall with no paste.  So they kept falling but at humorous intervals.  This has me so puzzled. How did they stay up?  Certainly not friction or anything like that.  There MUST have been someone behind the wall.  The timing was excellent.

The second act increases the daredevil aspect.  The revolving ladder had four acrobats {Chase Jarvis, Brooke Nelson, Gregory McElroy, Ariel Mosier, Kae Henning or Javen Mungun Ulambayar) doing all manner of feats of strength and flipping and so many cool things on this giant spinning ladder (left).

Then came out the animal trainer.  This was the least interesting piece of the show.  Amid recorded lion roars, a trainer tumbled and cracked a whip.  It was kind of neat to imagine there were lions, but honestly how many times can you watch a guy crack a whip?  Fortunately it was very short.

The knife throwing wheel was wonderful.  I genuinely thought there would be some knife throwing as they rolled out a wheel and Ariel Mosier stood on as if Wes Hatfield was really going to throw them at her.  He grabbed some knives and was blindfolded.  But each time he went to throw, her wheel would roll away.  And that began a delightful (although not as amazing as some other ones I’ve seen) Cyr Wheel routine.

Then, for the first time in my life, I saw someone actually swallow a sword.   Yes.  It was breathtaking.

Esther de Monteflores came back for a very cool slackwire routine.  She did some very cool tricks and stunts and was generally pretty amazing.

But not quite as amazing as the return of Tulga Battulga Battogtokh who held aloft what I can only describe as a telephone pole–it was easily as large as a telephone pole (but cleverly not as splintery.  He proceeded to throw it into the air while it was vertical.  He also spun it around on his body he did all kinds of things that made it seem like (as my son asked) it was made of balsa.  But he then hung swings from either end of the pole and two women swung from it.  Wow.  The Scouts met him afterwards and he was very friendly.

The final act of the show was the Russian Swing.  This is a simple swing in which the members of the cirque piled on and, with the weight and momentum of everyone, flung the acrobats 30 feet into the air to land on a mat.  It looks fun and dangerous and very exciting.  And it was a wonderful way to end the show.

The very end of the show showed that our man the clown was invited to join the circus–a very satisfying closing to the story.

There’s only so many different things you can do with acrobatics and strength.

I’ve been delighted by every cirque that I’ve attended, but I’m always pleased when they find new ways to present their skills.  This performance with its story and very simple set up did an amazing job.