AT THE CIRCUS ONE goes to the circus to be
entertained by a spectacle which is fundamentally a triumphant demonstration of physical skill and animal-training, spiced with thrills and leavened with laughter. This year, for the first time since the Crystal Palace was burnt down, London has a choice of three.
Mills' Circus at Olympia has become an institution, and so it is satisfying to find that the outstanding acts of the programme bear the hall-mark of tradition. The strong man in the Mars Troupe, who appear in an excellent perch act, wears a classic Roman costume ; and they all march into the ring in cloaks of imperial purple to "The Entry of the Gladiators." Those two essential qualities of every star-turn, meticulous timing and a sense of style, also distinguish the work of the Chaludis. Their high-light comes when one of the two prettiest and best-dressed girls in the show supports the other in a head-to-head balance ; the one on top nonchalantly twirling a bar-bell on her feet while her bearer sits on the shoulders of a man riding a bicycle. Then there are animals whose training shows the tradition which lies behind such famous circus names as Knie and Gautier. I have never before watched baby elephants crawl on hands and knees, nor seen penguins partner seals. Yet such originality is in itself typical of the constant search for something new. Edouardo juggles as before ; and there are customary wire- walkers, both high and low. Even the Victorian tradition is amusingly parodied in the neat acrobatic turn of the Five Tabs.
Jack Hylton presents his first circus at Earls Court. Horses, elephants, dogs, lions, Highland cattle and polar bears form the company of animal artistes, while the human performers include riders, acrobats, aerialists and a couple simultaneously shot from a cannon. Unfortunately the eating is built up, close to the arena, on a square plan, which gives the ring the awkwardness of a round peg in a square hole. The spectator is divorced from the spectacle, and this is not improved by setting the ring-doors on the diagonal. Some of the ground-acts fall into the obvious trap and work too much in one direction a In music hall. Though this cannot be said of Tarrassenko's Cossacks or Vinicky's High School riding, it is the aerialists who are seen to best advantage.
• • • At Tom Arnold's Circus the ring is surrounded by a hippodrome track, but this year there are no flanking stages, and the production numbers are fewer and crisper. Anyone who doubts that one person alone can hold an audience of 9,000 has only to watch Pinito del Oro who performs some remarkable balances on a single trapeze, or Tell Teigen, who, not content with working on top of a 70 ft. pole, raises himself still higher with the help of four chairs. An original way of coming down to sawdust is achieved by Udo Heltanos he slides- down an oblique wire, upside-down on one hand. The lbarras provide the best bar act we have seen in this country for some time. Their performance might well be allowed to run a little longer. The Carelis ride again, and, as the Francescos, present a really funny clofin entrée. Trubka puts lions and tigers through their paces with a smoothness that can only be compared with that of Krone 's sleek, slick sea-lions—six animals who more than justify their self- applause. And again we welcome the High School riding as well as the impeccably trained and beautifully presented Liberty horses of the Schumanns, who remain the core of the purest circus we have
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