CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22244, 8 November 1937, Page 4

CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN

SOLE BROTHERS' SHOW ARRIVES BRILLIANT CUP WEEK ENTERTAINMENT

The world owes a debt of gratitude to people like the Sole brothers, who are keeping the circus so much alive in this age of celluloid entertainment. They have brought to Christchurch for carnival week a show which maintains all the old traditions of the circus ring and at the same time answers to full satisfaction the modern insistence on novelty, daring, and rapid ringing of the changes. They prove conclusively that there is still a very definite pla#c for the circus, presenting a show which is thoroughly satisfying and well worth the money. A full house, or rather full tent, came away on Saturday evening voicing high praise of the entertainment.

The big white tent housing Sole's circus has sprung up like a mushroom over the week-end on a section opposite the railway station in Moorhouse avenue. Inside it throughout Carnival Week, with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday, a highly-trained assemblage of animals and humans will perform for the delight of their audiences. The circus is distinctive for the excellence of the team work and general management, which keep the show going at a fast pace, carrying the interest of the audiences rapidly through a series of exciting and humorous turns.

The animals show evidence of patient training, performing willingly and cleverly under the direction of skilled masters. Elephants, tigers, horses, ponies, monkeys, a dog—they are ail there, together with clowns, the wircwalkers, trapeze artists, horsemen and horsewomen, the conjuror, the tumblers, and the circus band. The whole show maintains a general level of excellence, allowing hardly a dull moment. Some of the performers achieve amazing versatility, especially some of the girl acrobats and trapeze and wire-walking artists. Some of their feats are breathtaking. The clowns, though some of their dialogue could be more clever, are surprisingly versatile. The dressing of the show was an outstanding feature. One of the outstanding performers on Saturday was Miss Topsy Williams, trapeze artist, who also danced on the wire rope, tumbled, and presented an amusing series of tricks with a Pomeranian dog. Under the command of Captain Andrew, the tigers performed faithfully, the crowd taking plenty of thrills from the snarling and leaping of the beasts about the cage.

The trick ponies and equestrian acts were a credit both to the horses and their riders. The Ridgway family presented a ladder act, which was as novel and skilful as the programme proclaimed it to be. Lying on his back, one of the clowns balanced a tall ladder on his feet, and kept it there while a girl climbed under and over the rungs and up to the top. The wirewalking was one of the most clever and effective of the acts, and the mon-key-pony steeplechase provided a good measure of comedy. These are only a few of the acts which go »to the making of a thoroughly satisfactory programme, one which should do much to maintain the popularity of the circus and enhance the reputation of the Sole brothers as purveyors of good entertainment. ,