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On the road with NoFit State in the first year
continued...
Outside the door, however, will be an environment completely new to us, now Glasgow, now Oxford. (The tour covered the whole of the UK: England, Scotland, N. Ireland and Wales.) At each new port of call we have to begin again the search for water, power, showers and laundrettes, not to mention shopping for food. The routines and shows that people come to see may sometimes appear difficult or dangerous, but in many ways they are to us the most comfortingly familiar parts of the day, whereas finding the key to the toilets may be an adventure.
"So who are these people, and what are they doing in the park?"
No Fit State Circus evolved from a
juggling group during the
last six
years [Ed's note: now, in 2007, more than twenty years]. Five hard-core members brought it this
far, acquiring expertise in a wider and wider range of skills, drawing in
helpers, and working on performances both for the street and for indoor venues,
including other people's tents. By 1990 they felt ready to control their own
performance space, and with minimal funding and sponsorship and a lot of hard
work they put together enough to buy a tent, and acquire sufficient vehicles to
transport it about, and live in. This is the tent's first year!
What actually goes on in the tent?
We offer skills workshops for kids, enhanced by the
atmosphere of playing in a real circus tent. Then there is "Risky in
Pink" - three guys having a lot of familiar fun with (between 3 and 11)
juggling clubs ("Oh no! Not eleven clubs!") and doing some rather
unexpected business with table-diving and unicycles. And finally a main show,
which this year was called "Take a Chance". The tent was also hired
out to local events as a venue, and these ranged from a Battle of the Bands to
Professional Wresting, and lots of amateur dancers.
No-one really knows quite what to expect at a New Circus. Some people are relieved that it is animal-free, others demand to know where the clowns with red noses are!
To fulfil people's expectations of "circus" it is necessary to generate a special atmosphere of excitement and surprises, and thrills and laughs. It is important that all the details are right. Front of house (Tim, Lurch and Toby) in their customised blue shirts and pink baseball caps, distributing programmes, warming them up; the smell of popcorn from Al's café area; ambiance music from Piers at the control tower. People come in and clamber over the seats, children sit on the carpets in front of the ring. Excitement and anticipation. For some of these children it is the first live performance they have ever been to.
The main
show is an hour and a half of theatre, based on the game of "Monotony"
(sic) with the five performers playing characters who live out their ups and
downs in the game. Ali's bag lady is the improbable hero, helped by Tom's
amiable sea-captain. Pete plays the villain, drawing boos and hisses from the
audience when he cheats. For a while his girl-friend (played by
Ruth) goes along with his plans, but her heart is finally won by Rich's
wimp-turned-superhero (or rather, superwimp).
The style of playing is popular
theatre, commedia, evolved from experience as street performers. The playing is
very broad as the audience may be wide ranging in age, background, etc. Though
No Fit State is currently only working in the UK, and so can use quite a lot of
spoken text, the style is accessible (as all good circus should be) to
everybody. We had wonderful reactions from various disabled groups in the
audience. The show is energetic, acrobatic and funny.
There are chases,
slapstick, sound effects, flashes and bangs, strobes, smoke machines and an
inflatable octopus. Various human skills are on display: live music, a lyrical
trapeze romance, impressive fire juggling, magnificently precarious tightrope
walking and much, much more (as they say).
Yes, it was a small circus to be proud of. I think I'd be pleased (as a parent) if this was the first thing my kids saw performed live.
A few days later we strip out the show and take it all down, pack it in the truck, and move on to the next place. If somebody passes through the park all they will find are some strange shapes parched and trampled into the grass, which will soon fade, offering them one last wistful moment (the show is never quite over) as they realise the circus has gone without them, one more time.
Toby Philpott, no fixed abode (for Poll Tax purposes)
Toby Philpott © 1991
Kaskade No. 24 December 1991