20 Minutes10 October 2014
A feather’s poetry
Le Cirque Plume celebrates its 30th anniversary with "Tempus fugit"
"Tempus Fugit": time passes quickly. 30 years! For le Cirque Plume, time has flown. If a company has managed to stop the course of time, this is the one, the cofounder of the "New Circus", the only one still producing ...
With magic shadows
Le Cirque Plume began to shake the dust off the traditional sawdust ring in 1984. "In those days, the circus was considered to be obsolete, dead in its tracks, and we took advantage of the Sales" now jokes the company director Bernard Kudlak. The circus is joyous, poetic and generous, a far step away from the materialistic approach of the time. Plume leaves room for dreams, desires and generosity. Since the birth of the company, ten or so shows have enthralled us and Tempus Fugit, staged until the end of the year at the Paris Parc de la Villette, is not going to be the exception…
Perhaps the only niggling complaint is that being so familiar with these artistes, we can see the tricks and numbers coming, at least a little. Musicians appearing as magic shadows and juggling numbers with balls of light, one ending up as the clown’s red nose, the performance of a gorilla-man so truly reminiscent of that of the wild leaping man in Toiles (1993)... "I don’t know about you, but we’re getting old... " seems to be what Bernard Kudlak is saying.
But if they are getting old, they are making a good job of it. Because of its simplicity and modesty, its homespun poetry, this show transports us, with some nostalgia, to the very beginnings of Cirque Plume. We all remember when they refused to use animals for professionally-responsible and aesthetic reasons, and for economic ones too. [Because "no animo mas anima", "no animals, more soul" were the words in the title of one of their very first spectacles.] Tempus Fugit is in the same register, the specter of time going by and which never stops. Not the most spectacular show, but truly enthralling.
Stéphane LEBLANC