The misadventures of Lady and Lucky begin tonight when the pair of troublemakers takes over the Metropolitan Hall in Taipei. Cirkus Inferno is loud, messy, full of explosions, and kids will love it.
The theatrical performance by Canadian-based Daredevil Opera Company is full of pyrotechnics and slapstick humor. It's something like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chapman and The Three Stooges, in that its similar to a silent film, with almost no dialogue.
"This style of humor requires no translation because the humor speaks to people of any language," said Serina Chen (
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAIPEI ARTS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
A DVD screening of a performance in Europe presented children screaming with laughter at the antics of the lead characters, Lucky and Lady, played by Jonah Logan and Amy Gordon respectively. The show begins when the accident-prone couple arriving late to the circus.
To get to their seats, the two clowns start climbing over chairs in the audience, all the while spilling popcorn and water everywhere. When the circus performance they come to see gets canceled at the last minute, the two start clambering over the young patrons again, this time to get to the stage. Once on stage they begin investigating the circus' props and within the hour, Lady and Lucky uncover a pogo stick, rocket costume, jet skates, combustible dog and a magic ukulele and grass skirt. Attempting to tidy up the mess leads to an even bigger disaster when the pair tries to operate janitorial equipment. At the end of the performance the stage is covered in confetti, streamers and spilled popcorn.
The set design is inspired by American vaudeville stages of the late 1800s and is decorated with retro posters advertising traveling circuses, dime museums and freak shows. The circus adventure also features an original, live sound track composed by Paul Weir, the same man responsible for the fire and pyrotechnical effects.
Unsure of how "opera" fits in to their repertoire, The Daredevil Opera Company are a combination of clowns, circus and stunt performers. Not exclusively children's theater, the troupe has a range of productions for all audience types and age groups, including Rocket and Roxy's Stunt Show, which warrants a mature content rating.
Members of the five-person troupe have been involved in Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy show, Cirque du Soleil and most recently the New York based company Antigravity, which produced the Broadway show Crash Test Dummies. Having toured extensively in Europe and North America, this is the troupe's first time in Asia.
The show opens tonight in Taipei and after the weekend will tour in Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Taichung and end in Hsinchu. For information on tickets, dates and times of additional shows, check the ERA web site at www.ticket.com.tw.
Performance notes:
What: Cirkus Inferno: Kid's theater from Canadian based performers
When: Thursday, July 15 to Sunday July 17 at 7:30pm with weekend matinees at 2:30pm
Where: The Metropolitan Hall (
Tickets: NT$300 to NT$1,200 available at ERA ticket outlets or online at www.ticket.com.tw
Telephone: (02) 2341-9898
Yesterday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominated legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as their Taipei mayoral candidate, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) put their stamp of approval on Wei Ping-cheng (魏平政) as their candidate for Changhua County commissioner and former legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has begun the process to also run in Changhua, though she has not yet been formally nominated. All three news items are bizarre. The DPP has struggled with settling on a Taipei nominee. The only candidate who declared interest was Enoch Wu (吳怡農), but the party seemed determined to nominate anyone
In a sudden move last week, opposition lawmakers of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) passed a NT$780 billion special defense budget as a preemptive measure to stop either Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) or US President Donald Trump from blocking US arms sales to Taiwan at their summit in Beijing, said KMT heavyweight Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), speaking to the Taipei Foreign Correspondents Club on Wednesday night in Taipei. The 76-year-old Jaw, a political talk show host who ran as the KMT’s vice presidential candidate in 2024, says that he personally brokered the deal to resolve
May 18 to May 24 Gathered on Yangtou Mountain (羊頭山) on Dec. 5, 1972, Taiwan’s hiking enthusiasts formally declared the formation of the “100 Peaks Club” (百岳俱樂部) and unveiled the final list of mountains. Famed mountaineer Lin Wen-an (林文安) led this effort for the Chinese Alpine Association (中華山岳協會). Working with other experienced climbers, he chose 100 peaks above 10,000 feet (3,048m) that featured triangulation points and varied in difficulty and character. The list sparked an alpine hiking craze, inspiring many to take up mountaineering and competing to “conquer” the summits. A common misconception is that the 100 Peaks represent Taiwan’s 100 tallest
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), alongside their smaller allies the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), are often accused of acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Some go so far as to call them “traitors.” It is not hard to see why. They regularly pass legislation to stymie the normal functioning of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) administration, and they have yet to pass this year’s annual budget. They slashed key elements of the government’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$40 billion) special military budget, and in the smaller NT$780 billion package they did pass, it is riddled with provisions that
RSS