A generally disappointing venture

A scene at the circus show Xin Chao! in September 23 Park in HCMC’s District 1 - Photo: The organizers

I am a fan of circuses, and the more traditional they are the better I like them. But Xin Chao!, though staged in the circus tent in Saigon’s September 23 Park on Pham Ngu Lao Street, is not a circus, but rather a pageant representing two episodes in Vietnam’s history plus an epilogue, all told in mime together with would-be-elegant costumes and lighting. There’s plenty of sound and fury, but in the end it doesn’t signify very much.

This show is neither a circus nor anything interestingly different. On the one hand you’re not going to learn much Vietnamese history from Xin Chao!, and on the other the thrills and splendour of the old circus are amost entirely absent. Various circus acts are incorporated to liven up what turns out to be a brief story (only Vietnam’s mythic origins and the ancient struggle with China are featured), but the music is unmemorable, whereas it’s the vibrant popular music that drives a traditional circus. Missing too is the circus’s sense of timing, and its characteristic panache.

 It might be argued that, with harmonised costumes and lighting, this show adds an artistic dimension to the old routines. But it’s pointless to try to incorporate a sense of beauty into the genre because circuses are beautiful already, as the works of many old painters (such as Picasso) testify. And acrobats are the purest form of theatre there is.

 Under a hundred patrons were present at Sunday’s performance, most of them foreigners. Indeed, the short last section of the show, supposedly representing Vietnam on Tuesday, could only be received with derision by any contemporary Vietnamese.

 More attractive, because more authentic, is the animal-based circus from Hanoi that shares the venue over the Tet period. Only small animals are used (though there is a sleepy crocodile and a rather large snake), and the truth is that this is primarily a show for children. But the many children present when I attended responded to the event with clearly genuine, and extremely vocal, enthusiasm.

 The prices for the two shows are very different - VND80,000 for the Hanoi circus and VND400,000 for Xin Chao! I could find no explanation for the difference except for the fact that more performers are involved in the latter. Neither of the shows, incidentally, is as enjoyable as that of the resident company, the excellent HCMC Circus, currently taking a break from its home turf.

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