Chronicle by Jasmina Mitrici
An actor probably does not feel what the space for a show and the totality of the challenges it comes with mean, until he plays in an outdoor show. One could say that such an experience completes him professionally (sometimes also spiritually). Similarly, a festival does not seem complete in the absence of shows that come down from the comfortable but closed halls and reserved for a limited audience, to the most everyday corners of cities, villages or other more or less ordinary forms of human settlements. Only when you leave the protected perimeter of the theatre stage and let yourself be looked at, acclaimed or even booed and... barked at (yes, yes!) by the audience outside the conventions, you can say that you are not afraid of anything. Or at least you can believe it.
The travelling show, Cheval, of the French company Paris Bénarès, trots through the crowd gathered as in the ancient times of the travelling actors. The public is made up of occasional or passionate spectators of the theatre, sales employees who stick their noses and smartphones to the shop windows, dogs, the mayor of the Cultural Capital, artists, and representatives of the political sphere, fascinated children and parents who try not to lose sight of them, although they can hardly take their eyes off the great animal of traction, built and mechanized ingeniously. Because in this detail lies the true magic of street shows: audiences of all shapes and types enjoy it equally, together. Handled by a few actors, a sound engineer and a colourful acrobat who makes her way through dance movements, Cheval (French "horse") slides on the four wheels, imposing and at the same time nice, to the joy of the big ones and the little ones alike. Accompanied by a diverse soundtrack, the performative walk hardly lets you get out of the procession that moves forward without restraint and studies the horse's every move to the top of the ears, which are, obviously, mobile, as well.
There is not much to say about such a show, not because it would not be a good start to debate on topics of applied ethics – for example the perspective of an alternative circus of the future, which spares living animals and replaces them with machinery similar to the main character – but because such experiences are to be seen and enjoyed and that's all. And if the dogs lost on the streets were convinced and even involved in the show with or without their will, who are we to say that the... Cheval was not really “the greatest horse in the world,” as the swarms of children exclaimed, all ready to follow him on any adventure.
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“Theatre Chronicle @ Eurothalia” is a programme conceived by Daniela Șilindean together with the team of the German State Theatre Timișoara, within the Eurothalia 2023 European Theatre Festival, held between 20-30 September 2023, financed by the National Cultural Program Timișoara - European Capital of Culture in 2023.
