VietNamNet Bridge – Twelve artists from Be Clown will perform a contemporary circus show, taking the audience on a timeless journey away from everyday reality, in Hanoi on Saturday.

Clowning around: Be Clown will bring a night full of music, art and joy to the audience at L’espace.

The story of Pe1tole! (Windless, A Dead Calm Sea) will offer a sensory and emotionally stirring experience using clowns, live music, and visual effects, together with circus arts such as acrobatics and Chinese pole, rope and aerial silk.

The show is the fruit of an art resident project in Vu Linh Commune, Yen Binh District in Yen Bai Province, initiated by Be Clown founders Charly Lanthiez and Soline Varreon. Lanthiez and Varreon have been traveling on their bicycles throughout Europe playing their clown duo for hundreds of children in orphanages, schools, refugee camps and on the streets.

After a five-month tour with a circus based in Hungary and Slovenia, the two decided to open their project to other artists and create a clownish circus show with the goal of performing around the world. They want to create a show for all ages that mixes circus, clowns and theatre techniques, using several artists. 

The artists decided to construct a theatre by helping in an existing project in the area. The theatre is now the cornerstone of the Be Clown Circus in Vietnam.

"For us, there was this fundamental necessity to feel we were serving a real cause in this search for humanity that has guided our footsteps for many years,” said Varreon, the project coordinator. She is a clown and performs aerial silk as well as music. "Above all, our wish is to meet people who live in remote places to offer them a moment of art and magic."

After a long search, and with support from French-Vietnamese Fredo Binh, the artists found a place in Vu Linh Commune that suited their needs. This place is called LaVieVuLinh.

Binh has been a circus lover for many years and has dreamed opening a circus. Lanthiez and Varreon decided to follow his dream and collaborate in this long-term and local project by helping Binh in the construction of a circus theatre.

Spreading joy: Be Clown has toured many places before Hanoi’s show on May 5. — Photos be-clown.com

The circus theatre is made mainly from bamboo, and is a part of an already existing rural development project, being carried out on a long-term basis. The circus aims to bring in other local and international artists in the future.

The artists intend to repeat the project in a collective manner around the world. The current project has been running since December of last year and has toured in Yen Bai Province; Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, Vientiane and Luang Prabang.

The one-hour show will begin at 8 pm at L’espace. Tickets are being sold in the venue, located at 24 Trang Tien Street. 

Source: VNS