Colonial Circus; currently playing at Aki Studio, is a hilarious and intermittently disturbing sideways look at colonialism.  It’s a clown show performed by Two2Mango; Shreya Parashar and Sachin Sharma. So, we have two people of Indian origin in slightly bizarre white-face playing both “native” characters; a priest and his disciple, and representatives of the Raj; a British lady and her manservant.

It’s a show of opposites where “native” is portrayed as savage and dark and “British” as civilized and light, but along the way everything gets inverted and distorted.  Demonstrating the Missionary position involves a crucifix and a giant condom.  The house burns down when the English lady gets too much spice in her tea.  When the white people set out to discover America; home of the white spice mayo, (there’s a mayo calypso) they end up in India by mistake.  But no more spoilers.

It’s a very physical show with lots of audience participation; a fair bit of which uses the ethnic diversity of the audience to good effect.  It’s all accomplished with minimal sets and props but some clever lighting.  This is a show that developed on the Fringe circuit and with the level of audience interaction  I suspect no two performances are quite the same.  It’s smart and funny and just thought provoking enough.  It’s the best show of its type I’ve seen since Monks.

Colonial Circus plays at the Aki Studio until September 28th.

Photo credit: Isaac Meyer