COLONIAL CIRCUS Review at Rosemary Branch Theatre 19 – 23 Nov 2025
‘Political clowning; bizarre, hallucinogenic, irresistible’ ★★★ ½
Clutching a fist full of laurels from Canada’s fringe theatre scene, a double act from Toronto have brought their show, Colonial Circus, an irresistible mix of clowning, dance, satire & improvisation to London. “If you look at what colonialism did to the world, the whole thing feels like an absurd joke…like a handful of clowns went on a massive power trip…and somehow the world just played along” explain creators and performers, Shreya Parashar and Sachin Sharma of Two2Mango.
A combination of Commedia dell’arte and Bouffon Clowning, the two have white faces and painted circles around their eyes, red velvet slippers and Noggin the Nog bonnets with jester’s bells secreted inside. A bizarre, avant-garde, slightly wild sight, the audience, unmoored and disarmed, are not only entertained but, through eighty hallucinogenic minutes, enlightened. They come to understand how it might feel to be colonised by an alien species, with their strange religion and tableware, delicate ways, and little fingers.
The opening sequence involves an ancient and tribal Mongolian chant and a long bolt of red, shiny cloth, held ceremoniously by the two performers. Sharma is taller than Shreya and as the piece unfolds, the red cloth – which may represent the silk road - acts as a secondary curtain, stage, path, boat, costume, or puppet. The initial chanting and parading of the red cloth, it could be a funeral dirge, goes on uncomfortably long, but has a purpose. The sounds and words, difficult to locate or reference, compel audiences into a position of passivity and reception. What is going on here? What is this all about?
And that’s only for ten minutes! Imagine if this feeling were held for an entire lifetime and through several generations? Although, they state in the opening preamble: ‘We are not a circus’, this piece involves some metaphorical tight-rope walking. How to take the non-brown audience with you while confronting the evil deeds of their ancestors? How to offer the tools for empathy and understanding and enable the boot to be worn on the other foot? How to do all this yet still raise laughs and give value to ticket buyers?
Challenging white guilt and debunking white saviours, colonialism is condensed into a series of simple scenes, easy enough for a child to understand. The nebulous distinctions between the savage and civilised, the principles of stealing and pillaging from others, both treasure, nature, culture and resources, the idea of white and British supremacy, the dissing of another’s religion and life, the starving of subjugates, “the Bengal Famine with 3 million dead, ‘like your Irish Famine’ “has still received no apology from any British dignitary. The list is horrific, but the performance remains entertaining and engaging even with some entire scenes in the Indian language, a performative reclaiming of the mother tongue.
Colonial Circus, an organic piece, has grown with every performance and evolved according to the responses and interaction of the audience and will continue to grow and evolve. After good reviews in Canada, the performers chose to come to Britain, whose map was once pink with belligerent triumph and land grabs. Colonial Circus demonstrates a real sadness behind the clown’s mask, gives space to experience one’s own humanity and illustrates the communicative power of comedy and performance. The show marked its fiftieth performance at The Rosemary Branch. Here’s to the next fifty...
COLONIAL CIRCUS Review at Rosemary Branch Theatre 19 – 23 Nov 20252
Presented by Two 2 Mango
Website: www.two2mango.com
Instagram: @two.2.mango
