To flea or not to flea
Copy Dog Productions, in association with Knysna Theatre, presents a frolic of fun this festive season, as The
Fantastical Flea Circus lights up the Knysna Theatre stage. Youngsters of all ages are invited to roll up for a merry morning of magic and mirth, with the teeniest, tiniest circus on Earth.
Acclaimed SA playwright and theatre-maker Clinton Marius’s award-winning entertainment – a jolly mix of song, dance, rhyming verse and clever tricks – plays the Knysna Theatre from 6 to 23 December, with performances daily at 10:00. Tickets are R60 per person. Book through Webtickets at Pick n Pay, at Knysna Theatre, or online at www.webtickets.co.za.
First staged in 2011 at the Catalina Theatre in Durban, this popular production scooped all awards in the children’s category at that year’s Durban Theatre Awards. Since then the Small Top antics have been seen by thousands of delighted youngsters, playing at schools and venues across the country.
Written and directed by Marius, and introducing two locally based artists Marveen Charles and Kobus Rousseau, the high-end comedy conjures up a troupe of “trixical” fleas, presented by the Duchess De Nunu and her travelling companion Dr Flammaflea, a professor of “fleaology”. Together, the flamboyant duo put the band of fleas through their paces in a line-up of circus acts, including a high-wire routine, a car race, a cannonball and bull’s-eye stunt, a high-dive act, a strong-o-mometer and a disappearing hand trick. “Wonder-flea entertaining,” enthused The
Daily News, while The Mercury found the show “big fun from tiny stars… flecked with fun rhyming verse and featuring some short songs … a charming way to fill an hour”.
“When writing The Fantastical Flea Circus,
I wanted to create a piece for youngsters that would also entertain and amuse their parents and older siblings, so the whole family could enjoy a theatre outing together,” says Marius, creator of the much-loved radio soapie Lollipop Lane, as well as a string of stage hits – including the Standard Bank Ovation Award-winning comedy B!*ch Stole
My Doek, for which Marius also won the Mercury Durban Theatre Award for best new South African script; Sweetie Darling;I
Feel Pretty; and a host of others. – Supplied, Copy Dog