Le cirque invisible

How can one re-imbue the journey with mystery and adventure in a world which is ordered and organized on a global scale? When our only escape from mundane reality are the images that randomly intertwine in our mind’s eye, can there still be artists who leap into the void and whose ‘Faustian impulse’ enable them to marry the unmeldable: imagination and reality? What could such alchemy bring forth?

“Le cirque invisible”, the invisible circus which combines the phantasmagorical with the poetic, has been crisscrossing the world and touching hearts for forty years.

Born of the on-stage encounter of two unique and genuine artists, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée and Victoria Chaplin, “Le cirque invisible” remains uncompromising in its demands: it would embellish our everyday lives with magic. Anything can happen, everything is allowed amidst the laughter and emotion when something unexpectedly magical takes places before our eyes...

Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée is not just an extraordinary conjurer: his on-stage presence is stripped bare of the greasepaint splendour of special effects. He calls to mind the harlequins who entertained children and adults alike with the simplest of means. And Thiérrée is a natural comedian, too, whose tricks and gaffes—but, above all, his disarming smile—never fail to raise a laugh.

For her part, Victoria Chaplin, acrobat and queen of his heart, transforms herself into the most bizarre creatures on-stage using simple, everyday objects ranging from umbrellas and kitchen utensils to fabric and bicycle wheels. An exotic bird or one-woman band, Chaplin crafts everything herself by hand and reality and imagination become one.

At their side, a unique band of players: a rabbit who changes size under Thiérrée’s ‘guidance’, and a flock of unruly and curious ducks who introduce themselves to the audience at the end of the performance...