'New Circus' at Prague's Letna Park
The circus has come to town! All this week at Prague's Letna Park is hosting the annual international Letni Letna circus festival. The festival offers spectators much more than your average circus.
This is no normal circus. You wont find any elephants or talking birds at the Letni Letna circus, instead you will find something a little different.
The Letni Letna circus is a 'new circus'. The new circus style incorporates traditional elements but with an added twist. For example, instead of performing acrobatics on horses, performers use motorcycles as their tools.
Jiri Turek is organizer of the Letni Letna circus:
"Letni Letna, it's a festival of circus, theatre and music. More specifically it is a new circus that takes place in a chapiteau and on an open-air stage."
Do circus' have along tradition in the Czech Republic, or are they relatively new?
"Circus', that is classic circus, is a tradition. But new circus is a relatively new thing. I think the first new circus in the Czech Republic was circus Alfred. I think people now know what new circus is all about."
Today there are a lot of places for people to spend their free time, why should they come to the circus? What do you think makes the circus different?
"A circus is live and it is really active. Every evining there is a different atmosphere and everyday there are different people and the ciricus is always in a different place."
There is a very good mix of performances at this year's Letni Letna circus festival. On Thursday there is a performance entitled '7x s nadhledem', which is based on the experiences of man from the perspective of woman. And on the coming weekend Theater Novogo Fronta presents 'Dias De Las Noches' which is a story about two émigrés from the Soviet Union who travel to Argentina only to find out later that their journey in 1974 was no coincidence. And the highlight is a French production 'Grimm' by Cahin-Caha, which will be taking place all week.
