The Circus is in town.....

There's some sort of hoopla going on in nam. Svobody this week. There's a stage set-up and a dealership has parked Fords -- FORDS!!, not even Skodas -- next to it. I was waiting around after the lesson last night and a smaller group was setting up, some sort of camper-sized velvet big top. I almost left, but then they started playing Tom Waites and obscenely macabre British polkas through the loudspeakers. Spanish folk guitar followed and beautiful young women danced with old men who cast aside their canes. I waited.

There was a shadow play with children zooming around and houses and abstract geometry. Then a pair of scissors appeared, cutting a literal window where there had only been a shadow of one the moment before and the Trio peered out from inside. In a moment they burst through the paper: sad scabby clowns whose looks had been inspired by The Dark Crystal, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Six String Samurai. They were squawking and cawing like crows and pranced around with great vigor. They danced and threw sawdust into the crowd. Soon a very Hensonian ringmaster appeared in red velvet with glasses and a whip, delighting in lording it over the clowns. There were occasional appearances by ballerina figures who wore masks that looked like little Gray Men, straight out of the X-Files. There was a yellow figure in plain costume that bore a leonine mask and a Coyote cum Loki aspect, snidely taking the piss out of the Ringmaster by turning him around and depriving him of his whip. The littlest ballerina was constantly at odds with the Ringmaster, unable to perform on her unicycle or with the spinning hoops.

The Trio eventually picked a teenage girl out of the crowd and taped her feet to the unicycle. (It's like Devin's new track bike, the pedals are connected directly to the wheel.) They delighted in dragging her around in front of the crowd in a ridiculous waltz. They made a great show of trying to give her purse and headphones to various members of the crowd. I thought she must have been a plant and in on the deal. However, I shouted "Twenty!" in Czech at the clown when he was in front of me (twenty crowns for a prop and a good memory is good, yeah?) and wound up with the purse in my hands. Then I saw the very embarrassed girl fighting her way back through the crowd to get to me and the clown heckled & cawed until she took it from me.

The Ringmaster eventually brought out an ogre of gigantic Norse looks, chained on either side by one of the clowns. Of course it was sad and terrible and the beast rebelled against his captors. The Ringmaster made a good show of it, throwing down his whip and doing battle with his bare hands, but he was hopelessly out classed. When the monster had him in a death grip, the alien headed little ballerina scurried out and snapped up the whip. She wielded it fearsomely and set the ogre cowering, once he'd dropped the Ringmaster. Even the Ringmaster was made to back away by the little girl cracking the whip. But once she'd scared them both, she carefully set the lash down and took the ogre by the hand, leading him off.

The leonine trickster made one final Faustian appearance. A figure in leotard, with a faceless blue orb for a head, was dragged out and man handled by two of the clowns. They poked and prodded it with poles, making it dance and dodge. Eventually she too rebelled and the Trickster entered the scene, sending the two louts away. He began to dance with her in earnest, and clothed her in a flouncy gauze skirt and red boa. There was fierce passion and tenderness in their movements. Eventually he left her standing, bewildered on stage. But she heedlessly ran to him when a lone arm beckoned from backstage.

Truly some of the most fun I've had in a long while.