With his distinctive images of pre-war Jewish communities, from brides to fiddlers, Marc Chagall was an obvious influence on director Adrian Schvarstein’s Circus Klezmer.
The showcombines Chagall-inspired images of Jewish village life from the early 1900s and traditional klezmer music with circus performance ranging from juggling to aerial work.
“It’s a story of my family and my grandmother when she was telling stories about the village she grew up in,” says the clown, actor, circus- and theatre-director, who first developed the show in 2004.
“It’s normal life in a Jewish village in Moldova, which was no different from any other village in that area before the Second World War.
“Music was a big part of everyday life. Klezmer is the brother and sister of gypsy music. We are in a period where everything is becoming very artificial – klezmer is real music with soul and heart, and which goes to the heart and soul.”
The performance follows a Jewish wedding and starts outside the theatre when the audience arrives.
“The audience are the people who have been invited to the wedding,” says Schvarstein. “There are many things that happen outside the theatre and in the foyer when people are going to take their seats.”
The show interweaves the story with the circus work – with the bride giving an aerial performance as she dreams of her forthcoming wedding.
Meanwhile the groom is a postman who juggles his deliveries when he starts to think about his future matrimonials.
The performance itself is largely silent, with the only speech being a gibberish version of Yiddish to ensure the show can be taken across the world.
“It took a month of rehearsals and 24 shows in Barcelona,” says Schvarstein of the creation of Circus Klezmer.
“Doing this show with an audience made it grow from improvisation and accidents which then became part of the show.”
The cast numbers four musicians, whose instruments are hidden behind vegetable stands on the market-place stage, and five circus artists.
One of the most memorable characters is the Fool, tasked with looking after the wedding ring.
“He loses the ring and it becomes a huge problem during the show,” says Schvarstein. “The audience has to help solve the problem, so there is a lot of interaction between the stage and the public.
“The Fool is the one who does what we would like to do in society.
He’s the clown, the one who breaks the rules, and often the cleverest man in the village.”
Audience members should expect to see him hanging outside when they’re queuing up to get in...
Theatre Royal Brighton, New Road, Friday, May 25, and Saturday, May 26
Starts Fri 5pm and 8pm, Sat 11am and 2.30pm, tickets from £10. Call 01273 709709.
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