Circus - a London Institution Written by Ian Mcquaid with Illustrations by Rebecca Strickson
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Circus - a London institution Written by Ian McQuaid with illustrations by Rebecca Strickson This June, contemporary circus The circus as a place of comedy, chaos director Yaron Lifschitz brings his new and catastrophe started elsewhere. And show DEPART to LIFT 2016. DEPART while the story of circus is a will see the tombs and stone angels of nebulous beast, there’s a consensus Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park amongst the ringmasters and infiltrated by circus performers, the charlatans that guard the history; the graveyard recreated as an amorphous modern circus began, like so much stage. Lifschitz’s splicing of feats of other bedlam and entertainment, on the wonder and the city landscape plugs streets of 18th Century London. into a long, largely unsung tradition; the circus as we know it was born in In 1768 the British Empire was London, far before the oldest resident of flourishing. Canada and India had been Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park had captured, American Independence was taken a first breath. And whilst still only a series of discontented Lifschitz’s work is unquestionably of the murmurs from overseas. Gold and now, history suggests that this goods were pouring into the capital, and pioneering, modern take on the artform the people who flocked to the city were has much in common with the anarchic hungry to consume whatever Londoners who first paired satire, entertainments their new found slapstick, clowns and daredevils some fortunes could buy. three centuries before. The circus as a place of comedy, chaos and catastrophe started elsewhere... There’s a common misconception that the first place audiences roared while acrobats and clowns choreographed anarchy was in the circuses of Ancient Rome. The Roman Circus was more like a pre-Christian Grand Prix; an extended race track for chariots to thunder around. The other events that Hollywood has gleefully sited in Roman circuses- gladiators hacking off each other’s limbs, lions snacking on unfortunates, have little parity with the circus as we know it. “nothing but downright and artificial flowers in the latest fashion. The animal was then secured starving would induce in an upright position into a large arm chair, the cords being concealed by the me to bring such shawl, gown and other parts of a lady’s defilement and fashionable dress” * abomination to the Clearly, confronted with no gin, starchy house of William theatre, and dubious human impersonation, the masses were as Shakespeare.” David Garrick ready as they’d ever be for a new form of entertainment. A tall, tubby equestrian The mid 1700s saw a lull in their named Philip Astley stepped into the pleasures. The filthy highs and breach. blinding lows of rotgut gin, so popular with the working class in the earlier Astley had been obsessed with horses 18th Century, had been curbed by the from a young age. The son of a cabinet 1751 Gin Act. Its edict put the brakes on maker, he turned his back on the old the independent Gin Palaces that had man’s trade to pursue his calling. Aged kept the city carousing and wailing for 17 he became a member of the 15th the previous 60 years. The theatre was Light Dragoons, a cavalry unit that had still wildly popular, but its review-style distinguished themselves expanding format of popular song, drama, and the George II’s colonial ambitions in tumbling of acrobats was undergoing a Germany during the Seven Years War. paring back at the hands of the After some years spent thundering celebrated actor and theatre manager round the battlefields of Europe and David Garrick. Garrick was a talented, learning to ride with an uncanny skill, haughty purist. He demanded that the Astley returned to England. His London stage maintain an obsessive military service didn’t pass unrewarded focus on the bard. Hating the - on decommission he was presented fripperies of clowning and acrobatics, with a white charger named Gibraltar. Garrick swiftly drove such sideshows from the London stage, declaiming Out on civvy street, Astley, along with (with all the flamboyance of an anti- wife Patty and the faithful Gibraltar, quarian luvvie) that “nothing but decided to set himself up as master of a downright starving would induce me to riding school, taking to the fields where bring such defilement and abomination modern Waterloo is. In between to the house of William Shakespeare.” teaching pupils to ride, he performed stunts on horseback to ever increasing Other entertainment was sparse, sordid crowds. His big innovation was, like and disappointing – Wilson & all the best, very simple (it also, prob- Caulfield’s 1869 text The Book of ably, wasn’t even his own innovation, Wonderful Characters recalls a “pig although he certainly popularised it): faced woman” exhibited in a travelling instead of riding in a straight line, he fair of 1750. Spectators who had paid to decided to ride in a circle. Whilst other see this marvel of nature were justified riders would go up and down a linear to feel cheated; “the lady was nothing track, Astley galloped round and round but a bear, its face and neck carefully in front of his crowd. This had a twofold shaved, while the back and top of its benefit – firstly it meant that Astley’s head was covered by a wig, ringlets, cap, stunts never went out of the crowd’s Here he built a semi-permanent wooden structure which he named ‘Astley’s British Riding School’. Reputedly a shrewd business man, Astley knew that the horse riding could be augmented with other performances – but he wasn’t sure quite what. He went out to the theatres to search out whatever entertainments were keeping the public amused, found that Garrick was turfing out the acrobats and clowns that had delighted the ‘cruder’ elements of the public, and realised he could offer these acts a home performing alongside his own feats of skill. The names came thick and fast; Mr Merryman, the dandified pantaloon clad clown who harangued the horseriders and mugged the audience; Baptiste Dubois - the sight. Secondly, the centrifugal force ‘English Hercules’, a strong man who created by the circular motion enabled would dance on the tightrope with 2 gave Astley a greater sense of balance, boys tied to his feet; Signor & Signora enabling more convoluted tricks. Patty Malizia with their menagerie of sound tracked the high jinks by beating performing dogs, their highlight being on a large bass drum. Herself an to encourage a bulldog to clamp its jaws accomplished rider, soon she was on a rope attached to a pulley, joining Astley in his performances with whereupon they would hoist the mutt a signature trick of her own; circling thirty feet into the air and set fireworks the ring on horseback with a swarm of off around the poor bugger. Whilst bees covering her hands and arms like Garrick was squeezing the theatre into a seething, buzzing muff. The horse tighter narrative constraints, Astley had Gibraltar also rose to the occasion. In made a wild, tatterdemalion artform, an his 1824 autobiography The Memoirs entertainment that bounded between of J. Decastro, Comedian, Decastro, fragmented, hyper-charged narratives, an employee of Astley’s, describes the blurring the line between incredible stallion as being able to perform “after feats, genuine drama and, with his the manner of a waiter at a tavern or tea penchant for somewhat inauthentic garden.” This meant Gibraltar could – historical re-enactments (even the allegedly - remove his own saddle, fetch bulldog on the string was meant to the tea service, and take a kettle of represent some recent conflict), surreal boiling water from the fire. social commentary. He had created the circus. Unsurprisingly – especially when the alternative was a shaved bear in a dress Mr Merryman, the - such entertainments proved increasingly popular. More so, it soon dandified pantaloon clad transpired, than teaching clown who harangued the people how to ride. Astley decided to expand. In 1769 he got hold of land horseriders and mugged at the foot of Westminster Bridge. the audience... This is the spirit that Lifschitz returns to ...the white face, the with DEPART. His circus is emphatically non-traditional. There is smears of red make no big top, and none of Astley’s poor animals – to have such would be up, the interplay of the imitating the accoutrements of Astley sinister and the comic, rather than understanding the innovation. The thing that made they’re all Grimaldi. We Astley so very popular was his ability to can thank him for draw together a multiple of disciplines, and use them to tell Londoners about Ronald McDonald. the world, about themselves and about One of the greatest artists of the 19th nothing at all. It was art that could be Century, Joe Grimaldi took to the stage read as social commentary, or could in the late 1700s. His influence was, and exist to excite sensation alone. In still is, vast. Although Grimaldi was seen Astley’s historical retellings, a cohesive as more of a theatre clown than a circus narrative was seldom of interest, he was clown (and there are some who put a more engaged with the spectacle, and very firm – some might argue was happy to leave linear dramatics to snobbish – distinction between the the theatre. This ability to combine two), his rise was almost certainly impressionist bursts of story with enabled by the shift in zeitgeist that compelling feats of wonder is the very Astley’s creation kick-started, and the thing that has made the circus so two worked together late in Astley’s magically otherworldly, to this day. career. Grimaldi played the part of the Lifschitz has made his name white faced clown, a stock character nourishing this other-worldliness, drawn from traditional Italian treating the circus as a form of physical pantomime, alongside other staples poetry that exists beyond conventional Pierrot and Harlequin.