We tried when we were in Siem Reap a year previously. We tried when we were in Battambang shortly thereafter. But the schedule didn’t work out either time. Now we were back in Siem Reap again. And this time we were finally going to see a performance of Phare, the Cambodian Circus.

Earlier in the day, having just settled into our apartment late the previous day, we go out scouting for some groceries for dinner, etc. We have in mind a certain supermarket that we’d seen the last time we were in town, about a mile away in the heart of downtown. But we go look for it, and even with the aid of Google, can’t locate it. It seems to have slipped into The Twilight Zone. But we do manage to score some goodies elsewhere.

Our goal is to begin cooking dinner at 3:00 so we will have plenty of time to get back downtown and stroll around before the 7:00 p.m. start time of the circus. But as we’re about to begin cooking (in the outdoor kitchen, under a roof, between apartments), one of the hosts comes along and asks us to wait 10 minutes so she can get some cleaning done.

So we go back into our apartment, and 5 minutes later, we peek out, and see that a shirtless fellow, speaking to the host with an Australian or New Zealand accent, is at the stove cooking, and using all the burners. He certainly didn’t wait 10 minutes, nor did anyone tell him that someone else was waiting to use the facilities. In any case, he takes an entire hour to cook his elaborate meal; but not to worry, we still have plenty of time. (We’ll see this mate again a time or two during our stay, and he’s always shirtless — even out on the street.)

Back down to the heart of town, where the circus tent is located. There is an opening act, on a little stage in the courtyard outside, consisting of a few teenagers performing traditional Cambodian dances in traditional clothing. We gather that they are being trained in the same program that produces performers for the circus.

The organization is called Phare Ponleu Selpak, which means something like “illumination by the arts” (Phare is French for lighthouse or beacon). It was founded in 1994 in Battamabang by a group of 9 young men who had been in a refugee camp during the Khmner Rouge regime, and were given drawing lessons by a French art teacher. Upon returning to their homes, they started offering free instruction in drawing and other arts to youngsters. And the result was the circus school which, beginning in 2013, began staging circuses for the public. Pretty cool, huh?

This evening’s performance is a production called “White Gold”, a title referring to rice, which is of course the backbone of the diet in Cambodia as in other Asian countries, and is therefore the backbone of the culture itself. The show begins with an artist masterfully creating a mandala with rice on the stage floor. Rice will be used in various ways throughout the performance, and it’s hard to decide which is more impressive — the way artists make intricate (and of course temporary) designs out of grains of rice, or the way the performers deftly execute their demanding acrobatic stunts on a floor sometimes littered with rice without slipping and fracturing something.

This production, like all Phare productions, incorporates several different disciplines. There are musicians playing traditional instruments, and dancers doing traditional dancing. There are the visual artists, one of whom is up on a platform painting paintings during the show — and sometimes the eye wanders from the awe-inspiring maneuvers on stage to witness his virtuoso brushstrokes. (Afterward, the artwork he’s created live will be for sale in the gift shop, where we’ve already seen some of the other paintings apparently produced in this manner.) But above all, there are the circus stunts, which are about as impressive as you ever could hope to see.

“White Gold”, so we gather, follows a loose plotline, something about a young man disturbing the mandala created by his elders, and then being ostracized by his community, and going off and getting drawn into the modern industrial world, and tempted by greed, and ultimately learning to reconcile the demands of contemporary society with respect for his roots. Or something like that. The story is clearly not the main focus here, but just the objective to wow the audience. And wowed we are.

But the show is also a joyful and inspiring parable of a nation’s resurgence from genocide and war and devastation, like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes. There was absolutely nothing commendable about the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror. But somehow from the ruins left in its wake, has emerged this towering beacon of hope and optimism. Leaving the theatre and riding a tuk-tuk back to our apartment, we can’t help feeling uplifted.

9/3/2024