Tall Tales

The traffic halted. The shoppers stopped,their jaws dropped and they began to follow a strange herd — nine red-necked giraffes that paraded gracefully through Select CityWalk mall at Saket. Their lanky forms bobbed high above the onlookers and it seemed difficult to believe that inside each giraffe was a stilt artist. The performance,called The Giraffes,was by Compagnie Off,a French arts group that’s touring India as part of the Alliance Francaise’s Bonjour India festival. “The Giraffes is a romance between two worlds,the street world of the circus and the elite world of the opera,” says Philippe Freslon,director of the show. The troupe has 27 French performers,who come from the fields of theatre,circus and dance; and 24 Indians,who were trained in Chennai over one month.

The giraffes flirted with the curious crowd,until a blast of smoke on the stage interrupted them. The smoke cleared to reveal a blonde opera singer and a bald circus director. Together with a profusion of red-clad circus boys,flamboyant songs and dances,the duo wove a surreal splendour of love,madness and marriage— which ends in a divorce. Freslon adds that Compagnie Off generally stresses on performances rather than a definite storyline. “But this time,we did it differently. We told a story,though not overt. People are free to carry home their own meanings,” she says. Memories too,he might add,of dancing giraffes and winking

circus lads.