Backstage pass

Belfast is getting a fresh injection of clowns this weekend, thanks to the Belfast Community Circus's Festival of Fools, writes TARA BRADY

GORDON STREET looks fairly typical of the Cathedral Quarter’s redbrick warrens, until you notice the purple crash-test dummy sticking out of an aquamarine building. This rather conspicuous institution is the Belfast Community Circus School, an academic centre of excellence for all things Big Top.

Inside, a bazaar of colourful disciplines cater to all ages and levels. Giggling two- to five-year-olds get a head start on co-ordination and confidence in special Itty Bitty Circus sessions; professional daredevils do hairy, scary things with trapezes.

“The people who spend the most time at school are the aerialists,” says the school’s creative director Will Chamberlain. “They have to reach the highest levels of fitness. So there are always people on trapeze or working on conditioning or on stilts. Jugglers can afford to be a bit lazier. But they have a big social network based around juggling with each other.”

Such schoolyard cliques are, he says, good for business. “One person can discover a passion for one discipline and before you know it half the class are doing it. We noticed it recently with unicycle. It went out of fashion for a while and then suddenly one kid got really into it and then lots of them followed and the next thing you know we have a unicycle hockey team.”

You don’t have to walk tightropes to get in on the act. Adult evening courses and kids’ classes keep regular civilians coming back for more.

“Most of what we do can be taken as personal development,” explains Chamberlain. “It’s to do with co-operation, respect and trust. Of course we help gymnasts develop the impressive stuff. But we get requests from everywhere. Pole dancers come along because the skills are very similar. And many people who turn up have nothing to do with circus or performance. One of our board members is an architect. working on building sites, she encountered a lot of sexism on the job. I remember her saying circus gave her great confidence to deal with people who thought that as a woman she wasn’t up to the job.”

Now in its 21st year, the Belfast Community Circus School began life in local halls and grassroots venues. But post-Good Friday Agreement the winning initiative has expanded into an international, multi-platform phenomenon. There are exchange programmes in place with similar institutions and initiatives in Paris, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and Tampere. Graduating classes have performed for audiences across Australia, South America and Europe, as well as Belfast.

“Historically, there was a sense that the city was not shared territory,” says Chamberlain, who joined the school three years ago. “It was not seen as a safe place. We were invited to alter that. It’s a cliche that laughter is the best medicine. But it’s true. Sharing a joke is the quickest way to break down barriers.”

In this spirit, students and alumni are currently gearing up to take to the streets as part of the eighth International Festival of Fools. They’re not alone: the programme boasts many of the planet’s finest street performers and circus artistes. Catalan-based La Tal promise to do amazing things with their life-size cuckoo clock; British newcomers Ramshacklicious have put together an entire vaudeville act – strongman, funambulism, half-lady-half-bird – on a tricycle, and, watch out, the Dutch Homeless Robot might be lurking anywhere.

“We have everything from a risque company called Skate Naked, to a sword-swallowing American raconteur,” says Chamberlain. “We have an amazing character called Rumpelstiltskin on the front cover of our brochure. He literally wanders the globe as a medieval-style jester, and can perform anywhere from 20 minutes to 20 hours at a time. We have something like 150 acts over five days. It’s free family entertainment. We want people to realise that Belfast is a city of fun.”

Having gained an additional bank holiday, this year’s bigger, even better Festival of Fools has positioned itself as a lively alternative to a certain wedding. “We are getting some European peace funds to promote shared cultural space,” explains Chamberlain. “We used that for additional programming on the 29th. [The festival] is a party worth enjoying whatever your feelings are about the royal family.”

Happily, no matter how large the shindig, we need not worry that Belfast Community Circus will get too big for its outsized novelty shoes. Regardless of the troops’ continued success, Ulster folk have the same dry response at the ready.

“It’s always the same joke in Northern Ireland,” laughs Chamberlain. “Don’t we have enough clowns running the place already?”

Festival of Fools is citywide in Belfast until Monday. See foolsfestival.com for a complete list of times and venues