Starting in April, PIFA won’t just take you on a creative journey back to the Paris of old (the 1900s to be exact); it’ll fly you there. But only for a short time during the three-week arts and culture festival. With the help and collaboration of the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts and director Robin Marcotte, The Green Fairy Cabaret will recreate a time when five permanent circuses dazzled Paris by combining jugglers, saltimbanques, clowns, harlequins and acrobats who virtually embodied artistic risk.
At the time the exploration of human limits was explored, at times according to rumors, with the help of the popular – and controversial – drink absinthe (also known as La Fee Verte – the Green Fairy).
The region’s top circus artists will take you on a trip through this creative and socially volatile period with a dazzling and comical performance with fabric (tissu), aerial ladder, trapeze and acrobatics, all performed overhead at Philadelphia’s most breathtaking rooftop spaces, the Kimmel Center’s Hamilton Garden.
Look to the skies for artistic innovation April 14 – 17 at 12 noon or 10 p.m. The night-time show will include rewards such as the “Green Fairy Absinthe Bar.”
Stay tuned for my weekly coverage of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts through May 1, supported by PIFA.
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