Steeped in research, but weaving its own fiction, Waldo’s Circus of Magic & Terror, a new show spearheaded by Extraordinary Bodies, pioneers in diverse-led circus, gives us a ringside view of the predicaments of that dark decade and the logistical and ethical contortions they entailed. To continue as a troupe in such a climate was to put your head in the lion’s jaws.
The complicating, paradoxical factor, of course, was that this sanctioned form of populist entertainment was peopled with the “non-Aryan” minorities – Jews, Roma and the disabled among them – that Hitler persecuted. Yes, in the Thirties the Fuhrer had a passion for the big-top.
“He does not care much for wild animal acts, unless there is a woman in danger.” So runs a line in a 1943 CIA report into Hitler’s psychology and predilections, which contains fascinating details about his love of the circus.
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