SPOTLIGHT
COLONIAL CIRCUS: SHOULD I BE LAUGHING AT THIS?
Written and devised by Sachin Sharma and Shreya Parashar, Colonial Circus pulls no punches.
You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, you’ll hurt! Colonial Circus debuts Friday, July 5, 2 pm at Theatre Passe Muraille Main Space, with seven shows as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival running July 3-14, 2024.
A starter-pack to A Brief History of Colonization, Colonial Circus is a show that takes the subject of colonization head-on, with a sense of play and wink. Freshly written and devised by Sachin Sharma and Shreya Parashar, two Toronto-based BIPOC artistes, Colonial Circus pulls no punches. It scratches the historical scabs of colonization with the hope to heal together with laughter.
Described as ‘a neo-bouffon’ show, Colonial Circus will have many moments of guaranteed guttural laughter and some, where one will squirm in their seat with questions like “Did I just laugh at that?” or “Will I be judged if I find this funny?”. The themes of the annihilation of language, religion, and culture are peppered throughout the hour-long show without any fourth wall.
After all, comedy is the mirror image of tragedy, brewed over time.
Parashar and Sharma are no strangers to Toronto’s comedy scene. This duo also co-founded Hinprov: The Bilingual Improv Community in Canada (with hits like Improvised Bollywood shows).
Parashar wanted to use satire to navigate through the horrors of colonization. “The creative idea came to us when we were experimenting with the artform of Bouffon: The Performance Art of Mockery. We wanted to have a ridiculous play on historical atrocities, packed in the style of Bouffon. Colonial Babies were born as a result,” she quips. “Finding beauty in gore, comedy in tragedy, and dancing to the melody of war sirens, we found our absurd rhythm as bouffons. As artistes, we are deeply influenced by phantasmagorical movies of Alejandro Jodorowski.”
Colonial Circus brings a fresh perspective to the comedy landscape with its BIPOC-led creative team that will make you laugh and gasp, almost simultaneously.
Sharma adds, “We came here (Toronto), four years ago from India and were itching to present an Eastern narrative of colonization as our own lived experience. Throughout the show, we tread through the palpable discomfort of our history with the bravado of a clown.”
His eyebrows dance with excitement.
Colonial Circus takes you on a journey to experience some of the anecdotes from the creators’ lives.
“My grandfather used to tell us an allegory of this particular villager who returned from a big city and was extremely thirsty,” recalls Parashar. “No one offered him any water and he ultimately died of thirst, while there was water in abundance, all around him. His colonial hangover made him ask for ‘water’ in English, a language he had picked up in the city and no one in the village understood. Language killed him!”
The show is directed by Isaac Kessler, who has been performing, devising, writing, directing, and producing comedic theatre for over 18 years. He has been nominated for Best Male Improviser at the 2015 Canadian Comedy Awards and holds three more CCA nominations as one half of the award-winning ClownProv juggernaut 2-Man No-Show alongside his comedic soulmate, Ken Hall. His solo show 1-Man No-Show has won the Artists’ Pick Award at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, 2022. His vast training in Clown, Mask, Idiot Work, Bouffon, and LeCoq-based Physical Theatre has also led him to be an award-winning director/deviser of five solo clown shows.
Additionally, the Colonial Circus crew includes Morgan Joy as the costume designer, Sagar Goswami as the stage manager, Gayatri Patel as the PR and media, and marketing is being handled by Sonali Sambherao and Aditya Khare. Colonial Circus brings a fresh perspective to the comedy landscape with its BIPOC-led creative team.
Colonial Circus will have many moments of guaranteed guttural laughter and some, where one will squirm in their seat with questions like “Did I just laugh at that?” Image credit: ZAKI FARROW,
When and where: At Theatre Passe Muraille Main Space, Toronto. July 5: 2 pm, July 6: 8 pm. July 8: 5 pm, July 9: 9.15 pm. July 11: 5.45 pm. July 13: 12 pm. July 14: 4.30pm. More info at https://www.passemuraille.ca.