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'Les Cousins'
 The Cousins, a French group, will perform in Chennai on 1st April their own special brand of funny circus that has regaled audiences all over the world. Their performance has been organised by the
Alliance Francaise of Madras.
Their typical show goes like this: With the same enthusiasm as children preparing a farce, the Cousins transform themselves into ambassadors for the circus and the fair ground. They unceremoniously unload their stuff in the middle of the audience and start on a series of juggling acts, a concerto for horns and the famous- "birdydance"..... Professional circus performers, they do a little of everything....are complete clowns, they do a lot of nothing!
The Cousins, international representatives of circus and itinerant theatre, touch down at the airport of Libreville, Istanbul, Trinidad or Yokohama. They leap into a taxi and set off for the village square or the Great Hall of the Alliance. Inside, they are fast and efficient despite a waterfall of puns and a punishing ladder-fall (didn't even hurt!). The crowd rushes in to see the Cousins while on the other side of the curtain they can still be heard guffawing.
Finally they arrive, from behind the punters, knocking out one or two innocents on the way, over-laden as they are, with their props. All of a sudden the woman sitting next to you tries in vain to stifle a frantic hiccup by biting her lip, while her kid, slid beneath the seats, seems to be assailed by terrible stomach cramps... In the front line of the stalls, the Economics Affairs Advisor gives out a strangled cry and appears to swallow his tie.
Feverish, convulsive, the audience can be seen literally dying of laughter, and splitting their sides. ..
With all the guile of pranksters preparing a farce, they line up juggling with braces, a concerto for foghorns, choreography of their kind, death-defying figures of eight on two unicycles (no, that doesn't mean a bicycle) and the famous Julot Show.
 Our three funny-men, who are normally well-blessed with the gift of the gab, keep it shut: Rene doesn't let out a single one of his famous puns, Lolo pants no more and even Julot's lisp is muzzled. Oof! Rain of blows, flying chairs, screaming sirens and rolling in tumbles....
A competition of idiocies!
As genuine circus artistes, they do a bit of everything. As genuine clowns, tlrey do an awful lot of nothing!
This all-terrain show brings together the "worst" pieces of their previous creations.
From, by and with; Rene, Julot , Lolo. Indoors or outdoors, minimal technical requirements.
RR
Published on 31st March, 2004
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