ARTicles vol. 7 i.2b: The Family Circus

Imagine a circus with no ringleader. And no rings. Cirque Nouveau has also done away with animals and clowns. In place of the worn-out routine of jugglers and elephants, Cirque Nouveau uses lush costumes, dense soundscapes, and over-the-top acrobatics. Leaving the circus tent behind, Cirque Nouveau has moved into legitimate theatres.

Cirque Nouveau, a cross-cultural revolution that began in the late 1970s, has refined the basic circus formula that dates back to ancient Rome. Abandoning the traditional circus equation,  it draws its inspiration from pop culture and performance art. Developments in postmodern dance and music have also guided Cirque Nouveau.

But its largest influence has been avant-garde theatre. Cirque Nouveau turns the tired circus form into a sophisticated theatrical spectacle. Intricately textured lighting plots replace the big top’s simple light washes. Rather than performing as silent clowns, Cirque Nouveau artists often use the spoken word to develop their characters. Complex visual composition replaces simple sets. Cirque Nouveau has also borrowed narrative structure from contemporary theater. Instead of a simple parade of acts, Cirque Nouveau features recurring characters with story trajectories and multilayered psychology.

Most Americans would assume that Cirque Nouveau began with Cirque du Soleil, the multibillion-dollar international circus powerhouse. But before Cirque du Soleil’s creation in 1984, Jean Baptiste Thierrée and Victoria Thierrée Chaplin were already revolutionizing the form with their groundbreaking production Le Cirque Imaginaire. The piece became an international sensation, including two lauded stops at the A.R.T. After years of touring Cirque Imaginaire on all five continents, the couple went on to create Le Cirque Invisible, an even more sophisticated Cirque Nouveau piece, which also enjoyed a successful A.R.T. run.

Victoria Thierrée Chaplin’s pedigree in innovative physical theater is impeccable. As the youngest daughter of Charlie Chaplin, she learned the virtuosity of physical performance from its twentieth-century master. Mel Gussow, writing about Cirque Imaginaire in the New York Times, called her a “mirthful one-man band.” Instead of bringing lions and tigers on stage, Chaplin became the animals, performing as crabs, insects, and birds. The technique would become a hallmark of Cirque Nouveau.

Chaplin’s landmark performance needed no supporting cast. In Cirque Imaginaire’s closing number, she manipulated dozens of fans and parasols at once, filling the stage with color and movement. Alone on stage, Chaplin created an enormous production number. Gussow gushed that the scene “would make Busby Berkeley glow with envy.”

But Chaplin’s contribution to Cirque Nouveau isn’t limited to physical theater. The granddaughter of Eugene O’Neill, Chaplin is also a master of structure. At first glance, Cirque Imaginaire uses a typical circus structure: Chaplin’s physical romps were broken up by comedy routines played by Jean Baptiste Thierrée. But rather than merely alternating between the two characters, Chaplin often staged them simultaneously, engaging them in dialogue with each other. Rather than being a simple circus performer, Chaplin became a complex character with nuanced relationships.

Chaplin and her husband played alongside two other performers during the tour of Cirque Imaginaire: their children, James and Aurélia. In subsequent years, each has become a renowned artist. James Thierrée, the star of Robert Wilson’s film Mister Bojangles, has gone on to found Le Cirque Bonjour. Imaginative use of everyday objects has become his signature aesthetic. Ben Brantley, describing the recent run of Thierrée’s Au Revoir Parapluie at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, raved that his staging was “as fluid and surprising as life itself.”

Aurélia takes her rightful place in the family tradition with Aurélia’s Oratorio under her mother’s direction, design, and choreography. To showcase her contortionist skills, the piece begins with a simple dresser placed center stage. As the music swells, Aurélia’s limbs appear through the drawers in stupefying combinations. Before long, she begins going through a daily routine while contorted in the dresser, turning everyday tasks like smoking and sipping a glass of wine into a master class on physical performance.

One new element that Aurélia and Victoria have explored in Aurélia’s Oratorio is puppetry. Shadow puppets become scene partners, dancing and fighting with her. In one memorable scene, Aurélia becomes a human puppet, performing inside a tiny toy theater for an audience of antique puppets who clap and boo.

Aurélia’s scenes are interspersed with ballroom dances performed by Broadway veteran Julio Monge. As Chaplin and Thierrée did in Cirque Imaginaire, Aurélia and Monge weave their characters together as the piece progresses. By the end, Aurélia and Monge are sharing costumes, using one jacket or pair of pants to create a single human form from their divergent physicalities.

For three decades, Victoria Thierrée Chaplin and her family have defined and redefined Cirque Nouveau. With Aurélia’s Oratorio, the Cirque Nouveau tradition moves in a bold new direction. Like the religious musical form of its title, Aurelia’s Oratorio celebrates the sacred in everyday life. What other new tricks do Victoria and Aurélia have up their sleeves with their newest A.R.T. production?

Sean Bartley is a second-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.

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