An afternoon delight with French Cirque Baroque
By Emilie Sueur
JAKARTA (JP): A quartet of Europeans acting the fool? Indonesian spectators young and old appeared fascinated by the strange spectacle during a recent Jakarta show.
People usually glimpsed at a distance or in the formal atmosphere of an office were suddenly garbed in bizarre clothing and gaudy makeup.
The four buffoons were members of Cirque Baroque, a French circus troupe performing here at the invitation of Yves Ollivier, cultural director of the French Cultural Center in Jakarta.
After a debut at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) on Aug. 16 last week, the troupe performed at the IBIS Hotel Friday and will be back at the TIM today at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Christian Taguet, the leader of the troupe, bears one of the most famous names in the circus world. He has received the Grand Prix National du Cirque (National Circus Grand Prize) from the French Ministry of Culture.
He began his career as an actor and musician. Soon, through acquaintances, he discovered the circus and created his first company, Le Puits aux Images, in 1973.
In 1987, he set up the Cirque Baroque, a company which suits the definition of the "new circus".
Traditional circuses mainly focus on animal acts or human feats of daring, a mishmash of performances lacking a solid link between them.
The aim of the new circus is to tell a story. Each entertainment is based on a script which defines characters. Each play requires specific costumes and music.
This is what Cirque Baroque does, and the main cast is now performing an adaptation of Voltaire's Candide in Britain.
This show, a personal retelling of the Voltaire's play, is a good illustration of the new circus concept as it mixes classical theater and acrobatic performances.
Taguet did not want the Jakarta show to be a reprisal of Candide, but a return to the circus roots.
He called it a saltimbanque performance, from the Latin for jumping on a bench, to define its acrobatic content.
The four performers entertained the audience as acrobats, magicians, jugglers and fire-eaters.
Coton Macaloon, a 34-year-old juggler, amused the audience by introducing himself in Indonesian as a bule goblok (stupid white man).
Mimosa, alias Herve Lemarchand, was the magician. The two little girls who helped him seemed to be delighted by his magic tricks, especially as coins multiplied in their hair.
Marot, alias Eric Ledru, recruited two kids to help him in his show. The girl and the boy had to hold the two ends of a long toilet paper roll that Marot slashed through the middle with a whip.
He had some trouble keeping his two frightened assistants on stage as the distance between them was one flimsy piece of toilet paper. But nobody was hurt.
The final show, performed by Taguet, was a burst of impressive acrobatics. Walking on a rope, he juggled with burning torches while eating fire.
Children in audience seemed alternately amazed and scared, especially when those strange white men were trying to enlist them in their shows.
Their parents, regaining their childlike spirit, appeared to love the show and the troupe's antics.
The whole world may be a stage, after all, as the performance proved that feelings of glee and anticipation can traverse language and cultural differences with tool as simple as a rope or roll of toilet paper.