Sometimes it's a real circus train, 100-plus cars with good food and air-conditioning, trainers and costume designers. Sometimes it's a handful of limping trucks and a house trailer, with beans three meals a day and hand-me-down costumes that have seen better days — much better days.
But the pull of the circus on those who live it, from the stars of Ringling Brothers to the talent of Circus Flora (now playing in its tent at grand Center), to the beaten-up, beaten-down Ponce family, front and center in "Circo," which opens today. "Circo" is the tale of Circo Mexico, which follows the family and its circus across the dusty back roads of Mexico.
Tino Ponce is the ringmaster, acrobat, animal trainer and driver of the lead truck of Circo Mexico. His wife, Ivonne, their four children and his parents, Don Gilberto and Dona Lupo, all try to live on the few pesos.
"Come see Circo Mexico," Ponce says through the truck's public address system. "We're on the lot behind the gas station."
Meanwhile, the children look at their peers in town.
"Humph," one of them snorts, "all they do is go to school and play."
But the little Ponces envy the fact that the town kids can read and write.
Tino and Ivonne discuss their own bleak future and that of their children. She complains that his father takes more than his share of the circus money.
Aaron Schock wrote and directed, did most of the camera work. It's interesting. Schock knows how to interview, how to get the most out of limited material. But it's such a sad story that even circus music is not enough to stir the soul.
Circo opens today at the Tivoli
—Joe