'Cirque' melds story with physical magic

Cirque Ingenieux is a rare specialty for those who enjoy theater performances. The show is one that seamlessly melds a storyline with amazing physical circus-like performers. These include two muscle bound men who balance on each other in positions that defy gravity, contortionists and a tailor character who seems to be taunted and befriended by usually inanimate objects.

Jason McPherson, the actor/performer who plays the tailor, took some time to talk to The MIchigan Daily about his character and the plot that ties the show together. "In the beginning of the show my character is the tailor in the real circus, an eighteenth-century circus. He's the clown character in the show. He's a dysfunctional character who makes costumes for everybody and he makes friends with the main character, a girl who is fascinated with the circus. Later on in the show things change,

Courtesy of Cirque Ingenieux Jason McPherson puts on an impromptu magic show for Ekaterina Fedosseeva.

the little girl falls into a fantasy world and all the characters that she meets in the circus come back much more fantastic. And that's when they start doing their routine in the real style of the sho, which is more fantastic and dreamlike. The images are much stronger and it really takes off in the imagination."

The show consists of an international cast of performers proficient in unconventional roles - a cast which McPherson said gets along very well and routinely helps each other improve a lot. "The cast was picked from performers from Russia, Mongolia, Poland and Canada to name a few. Neil Goldberg, the mastermind behind this whole show, was looking for more oddity things, people who have been doing circus acts which have been done for hundreds of years but with a twist to them.

"I was basically working on these routines where I would animate objects and they would come to life on me. One of these is a coat which I animate and it becomes a character in the show which constantly bosses me around, a very dominant and tyrant character. Another one is a bug character and he's a dysfunctional little thing. You kind of have to see it, he has to hold his face together basically, if he doesn't do it just right his face falls off and he has to try to put it back on."

He then continued, "I did the tour basically to learn and when you have these incredible hand balancers from Poland, watching them every night and also getting to work with them during warm ups (teaches you.) Everybody supports and coaches everybody else. My handstands have improved immensely from hanging out with these guys, my flexibility has improved with help from the contortionists. These are people with incredible movement and dance ability, (something) which is a big part of clowning. From last year's tour and this year's tour I can really feel myself progress just working with this cast of 22 talents."

In the tradition of great comic characters, McPherson shared that portraying a clown-like character is not an easy task. "It's a challenge for me. My job is to stand out in front of the audience and make them laugh for the next few minutes. It is the balance of creating a routine as well as playing your character. In this show there is no fourth wall. (This is) unlike other theater shows where there's a fourth wall, where people are doing their play of their story and the audience is just looking at it and not being totally involved. This show is different. Speaking not only about my act but all the other acts, there is no fourth wall. There's a definite energy between us and the audience. That's the circus aspect of the show where a symbiotic relationship exists between us and the audience."

02-22-99