‘My God, it’s scary’: Giffords Circus on its scariest show yet | Circus

‘Ewhat you see was built by us,” Toti Gifford told me with a sweep of her hands. Circus since 2014, the company is in intensive rehearsals for its latest production, Waterfield. There are many bad things to see. The area is lush and green and scattered with livestock, while the area still functions as a farm and brewery. The company’s headquarters are housed inside a large converted cowshed and the farm is made up of makeshift barns, all hand-built and decorated with props, paint and all manner of secrets (including, ironically, a human gun).

There’s a new winter resort as well as a restaurant and hotel under construction, and both should be open in the next few years – pending approval. The area around the famous circus tent, with its bright lights, was also improved. Toti Gifford, who also runs a successful mud walking business, decided to dig up the garden and put stones in it.

Pictures of Gifford’s ex-wife and co-founder are everywhere, climbing the stairs and lining the walls. A circus performer and equestrian through and through, Nell Gifford died of cancer in 2019. All these years later and she is still the first name on everyone’s lips, mentioned almost as soon as I leave Stroud station and the opening topic of conversation during my chats with Toti. We sit down for a chat in the most beautiful and smallest circus wagon, which will be home to the entire Gifford family – Toti, his second wife Alice and their combined family of four – during the long tour.

Dressed in a wax jacket and sturdy boots, Toti Gifford looks like a still-life farmer but also likes a burst of poetry (“When the sun goes down, the sky turns to liquid gold”). He left school at 15, built his landscaping business at 17 and, when he met Nell, suddenly found himself in a very different world: “Circus was not really my dream. I am the son of a farmer and a digger driver. I did not think it would end. Nell was a truck driver. She was made for all this. “I enjoyed and enjoyed the cart. “

Toti and Nell Gifford met in their early 20s. Nell was already obsessed with horses and gymnastics. Soon after the two met, Nell found work at an amusement park in Germany as a groom and rider. Toti followed Nell to Germany and, seeing her succeeding in her work, quickly realized that there would be only one future for the two of them: “I suddenly realized that I will not remove the game from its place.

When Nell was invited to speak about her first book, Josser: The Secret Life of a Circus Girl, at the Hay Book Festival in 2000, Toti said: “Let’s go to our circus.” Only, at this time, there was no exercise: “We did nothing. They took wood from the skips, turned the shepherd’s hut into an office box, went to Spain and found a horse and bought a small circus tent for £ 330 from “a lady called Edith in Somerset” in the trade paper Trade-it.

The Giffords Circus was born: a family-run operation that, 26 years later, still retains the warmth and unique charm of its handmade costumes and handmade carts. This year, there is a new trailer added. It’s a shop on wheels, which has been transformed into an exact replica of your local friend’s inn, complete with painted murals behind the bar. (At Giffords, even the bathrooms — with beaded curtains sweeping over the doors — feel like a theater piece.)

So what makes Giffords unique? Toti pauses and finally answers: “It’s interesting. To his mother, he told her: “Kuzana na kumkomana.

Director Cal McCrystalwho has been working with Giffords for 14 years, believes that there is something more special: “We are very good at bringing games, which do not conflict with the form.

McCrystal is perhaps best known for her work on the National Theatre One Man, Two Guvnorsand he is careful to add laughter to the play: “There is always a really funny story that carries our story.” So when Giffords presents it as a traditional play, the comedy makes it very clear.” This year’s show is called Waterfield and the theme is “something Cotswoldy,” says McCrystal: “Wind in the Willows was very inspiring.

After the interviews are over, and the company has gathered for pie and porridge, a small audience gathers to watch the dress rehearsal. The famous Gifford Circus tent is full of green grass, tall spiky reeds and dry ice. It sounds even funnier than what happened last year 25, Laguna Bayand – at least the opening numbers – a little bit more gentle and poetic. When Alice Gifford puts her horse and shetland in the ring, the act is closer to a quiet family moment – a wonderfully sweet walk in the woods – than to a sporting event.

However, when the action is clear (and sometimes the fun stumbles), it gradually becomes too fast. After reading a comment that said Giffords was not really known for her dangerous actions, McCrystal decided to go further: “This year we have the most dangerous events we have ever done. I have a physical desire to get out of the tent when several of them are. The Ethiopian Addis Ababa Troupe is crazy (the gymnasts throw each other around and then my Deheel Balls). Scary to see.”

He is not exaggerating. At the end of the high-octane show (I’m still breathing after throwing the knife), the big double wheel, which is raised above the axle, is brought into the tent. It’s like a giant hamster wheel, only the Valencia Flyers are running. With the wheels in motion, the two actors run inside the wheels, always – they feel – close to falling. Then, they jump on top of the wheels and, finally, they do it all while wearing blindfolds. A little girl in front of me is dancing in her chair, caught somewhere between joy and fear. It’s all a little crazy and magical. Scary but surprisingly comforting, too. In other words – classic Giffords Circus.

Waterfield situated at Sudeley Castle, nr Cheltenham, at 5 May; Blenheim Palace, and Oxford, 8 until May 18; visiting until 27 September.