2024-08-22 06:38:34
There is an explosion, smoke obscures the view and sparks fly through the air. Parents in the crowd check to see if the children were too scared. The French neo-circus group Akoreacro came to Letenské sady in Prague with the performance Arrêt d’urgence, or emergency stop, which opened the Letní Letná festival. The artists parked a truck in the middle of the park, which became the scene of a chaotic concert and acrobatics.
An extremely hot August day is ending, it’s slowly getting dark, and Letná is getting busy. It’s really tight in the crowd near the famous metronome. The opening of the 21st annual festival of the new Letní Letná circus attracted several thousand people, often families with children. A fake conductor in a cheap-looking suit and a curly wig on his head promises that the audience is in for a concert, perhaps Beethoven’s repertoire played on the triangle he holds in his hands. But it soon becomes clear that everything will be different.
A forklift arrives on the concrete platform, which picks up the grand piano and the pianist. Next is a red truck with Cirque written on it. His trailer, lined with mattresses, becomes a stage for the acrobats and the band for the next hour.
The production Emergency Stop alternates the precise acrobatics of one woman and five men with humorous situations based on the fact that something keeps breaking and breaking. One time it’s a forklift spewing red steam and a burning smell. At other times, the entire truck explodes and the performers call on a few spectators to come and help them push it so the show can continue. The fire extinguisher seems to be one of the characters. But the audience can stay calm. “We are professionals, everything is under control,” is heard from the loudspeaker.
The founder and director of the festival, Jiří Turek, admits that this year he and his team chose the opening performance somewhat randomly. After last year’s challenging Swedish-Czech show on the newly created lake in Letenské Sady, the organizers wanted to go a more traditional route. “Last year it went great and we were happy, but also exhausted. We wanted to take a break and do a more classic show,” he explains. Therefore, when the Akoreacro ensemble offered them that they were planning a tour of Poland and could also come to the Czech Republic with an open-air project on a truck, they gladly accepted.
Wednesday’s opening performance was traditionally free. This year, it is also possible to visit the She is Not Me outdoor show about the everyday troubles of women without a ticket, which will be performed by eight Czech female performers under the direction of the French Cirque Aïtal.
Jiří Turek founded Letní Letná in 2004. | Photo: Tomáš Vocelka
Jiří Turek is trying to save on some of the costs of the festival so that he can still offer part of the program for free; he solves what he can with a so-called barter agreement. He knows it will come back to him. “When we do a big free show, some people will come to other paid shows as well,” he observes.
At the same time, it focuses on educating the youngest viewers. In parallel with the festival, the suburban camp Letní Letňák takes place, where children learn the basics of acting and circus disciplines. According to Turk, there is no official circus school in the Czech Republic. Especially compared to France, where this art has a great tradition and where the founder of the festival discovered it for local audiences in the 1990s.
In the 21 years that he has been organizing the event, he has seen an increase in interest in the new circus. Even at the turn of the millennium, most Czechs did not know this discipline, which mixes traditional circus procedures with theatrical and dance means. Today, two main new circus groups operate in the country, Cirk La Putyka, which will celebrate 15 years of operation at Letní Letná, and also Losers Cirque Company. “They played their first performance here exactly ten years ago,” recalls Jiří Turek of the beginnings of the group, which today also has its own Bravo theater stage.
International festivals of the new circus already operate in other Czech cities. Cirk-UFF, which has existed since 2011, took place in Trutnov at the turn of May and June. Just a few days later, the eighth year of the Cirkulum event followed at the Silesian Ostrava Castle in Ostrava. Already in the spring, the professionalization of the genre in the Czech Republic moved a step further with the establishment of the New Circus Association. Jiří Turek was one of the founding members.
The association is supposed to cover the entire industry and help its development. “At the same time, we will be able to perform together at various meetings, in front of the authorities and the Ministry of Culture. I will no longer have to go there alone with the fact that Jirka Turek wants something,” explains the director of Letní Letná. At the same time, he adds that there is no need to grow indefinitely, because several dozens of circus troupes will not make a living in the Czech Republic anyway. He does not plan endless expansion with his festival either. “We’re not trying to get bigger every year and have more and more shows. We’re more focused on improving the content,” he concludes.