by Martin Quinn

There’s good and bad points to living in a big city when the biggest place you’ve ever lived consists of less than 80,000 people. Well that’s just the nature of Ireland really. Small towns labelled as cities with a limited amount of things to do. Still, there’s plenty of fresh air and the countryside’s only a cycle ride away, two things sadly lacking in Madrid. Although in fairness, the Cercanias can get you out to the Sierra pretty sharp.

Having a limited choice of activities is what brought me to foreign climes, well that and the 250-odd annual days of rain. Unless you live in Galway, the most international of places in Ireland or the handful of actual Irish cities your international experiences aren’t going to be many. Back in my own hometown Ballymena, many people’s idea of a foreign experience is the annual boozy fortnight in Gran Canaria/Ibiza/Santa Ponsa where you don’t see the sun once due to the dozen hangovers that you have to sleep off. Other locals have been known to get nosebleeds after crossing the town line and travelling too far out the Antrim Road. So the prospect of a city with half the total population of Ireland and having so much to do and see for me is exciting. And an African circus in the middle of it sounds, as they say round my way, the ticket.

An African Circus you say? Think about how many animals it must have! Actually, none thankfully. Animal-free circuses are popular these days thanks to the enlightened modern opinions of many folks concerning trailing caged giraffes, elephants or zebras half-way round Christendom when they should be on the Savannah. Cirque du Soleil has also cemented the popularity of the choreographed, dance-focused circus. And happily Mother Africa doesn’t have 17 clowns fitting into a mini either. On the contrary, there was only one clown-esque act the whole night. The show in Teatro Circo Price, close to Embajadores Metro was a mixture of dance, acrobatics and difficult-to-watch contortionism. The sight of Lazaraus Gitu Mwangi, who can bend his legs over his shoulders, put a cigarette in his mouth with his toes then light it with said toes will surely make you squirm.

This contortionism was one of the highlights of the show but there were many others. The aforementioned clown act was in the form of a drunken chef doing the age old plate-balancing and spinning act. It’s a staple of most circuses but keeping 40-odd plates reeling around steadily needs a lot of concentration and is always good for a laugh. There was also some great singing parts from a girl with a lovely voice, backed up with more girls with lovely voices, African drums and a talented horn player. It has to be said that many parts of the show didn’t seem to have that much to do with Africa (Dancers dressed as builders? More Village People than Heart of Africa) though the dress sense became very much African during the second half of the show.

The show, which lasted two hours has plenty for everyone to enjoy from my neighbours’ hyperactive, disco dancin’ three year-old niece to the old guy that was sat on the other side of me who kept shouting “Bravo!” Luckily by the end of the show, he had moved away to shout “Bravo, Bravo,Bravo!” etc, etc in someone else’s ear. Photography was prohibited unfortunately though the brochure has a good collection of snaps showing the highlights. The circus is made up of performers from across the continent and is directed by Winston Ruddle, from Zimbabwe and Hubert Schober, a German. It is choreographed by Simon Nene and Cynthia Akanga, a former employee of the more famous Cirque du Soleil.

Unfortunately the final Spanish show was on Easter Sunday so you’ll have to wait until next year. They tour regularly so you may well have the opportunity to see them next year with a few more additions. I suspect it’s possibly put a few ideas into the mind of our aformentioned three year-old Colombian dance fanatic.