What has lions and tigers, a big top and a sawdust ring? “Not my circus,” actor Chris Dingli tells David Schembri ahead of ĊirkuMalta’s debut in this year’s Malta Arts Festival.

[attach id=249355 size="medium"]Chris Dingli will be bringing the concept of an animal-free circus to the island as part of the Malta Arts Festival.[/attach]

A quick Google search with the query ‘circus Malta’ brings up a host of controversy-laden stories: protests against animals being used in circuses, problems with permits for the big top, circus directors locking themselves in with tigers and more protests against animals being used in circuses. It’s as if circuses have stopped being about fun and wonder for all the family, and are now dinosaurs from a bygone age, clumsily trampling over all we hold to be sacred in the 21st century.

Which is why another item brought up by the search – a call for local performers to join a Malta-based circus company – might appear to be laughing in the face of the Zeitgeist. Not so for Chris Dingli, who has had a fascination “bordering on an obsession with the circus” for a while now.

“There’s something about the coming together of skills and performance that really appeals to me. Being a circus performer is the culmination of years of training and discipline. If you can harness those skills and present them in such a way that they are supported within a show that connects with an audience, you’ve got something incredibly special,” Dingli says in a brief moment of respite from his busy touring schedule (he’s on the road with the stage adaptation of Philip Pullman’s I Was a Rat!).

The core of the circus will be made up of a small coterie of professional international circus performers who will not only star in the show but will also train the Maltese performers

“It doesn’t matter what language you speak, how old you are, what your education is, what nationality you are or what your background is – everybody can enjoy a circus.”

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that this is not the first call for performers Dingli has made. The first one came around three years ago, when the actor had brought in a British circus consultant and a circus director to help him set up a circus in Malta.

Although there was a healthy response to the call the first time round, lack of funding resulted in the project being put on the back burner.

The project Dingli hopes will become the first fully professional circus based in Malta – now christened ĊirkuMalta – will finally see the light of day at the Malta Arts Festival with a festival-commissioned show called Darirari. The playfulness of the piece is mirrored in the show’s moniker itself, which is drawn from the old rhyme ‘Dari rari tara lira, tara lira, tara re’, Dingli remembers from his childhood.

“Our show will be Maltese because it comes from a Maltese place. Maltese things, traditions and people inspire the storyline and characters within it. Living away from Malta for almost a decade has afforded me the opportunity to distinguish the things I love about Malta and include them in this show,” the UK-based thespian says. His work is being buttressed by Sean Buhagiar, the project’s producer, who is turning ideas into Maltese reality.

The core of the circus will be made up of a small coterie of professional international circus performers who will not only star in the show but will also train the Maltese performers who will join the circus, where Dingli hopes they will take their skills and talent to the next level.

“I think it is a shame such talented people don’t always have the opportunity to develop and showcase their skills. It’s one of the reasons I started working on this in the first place. The age of the part-time dilettante is over. Nowadays, audiences are sophisticated and there should be enough opportunities for professionals to be able to do what they do best for a living.

“If, for example, there is someone in Malta who has trained (in their own time) to be a juggler, I want to find that person and provide them with the opportunity to perform their skills in a professional circus show. This is an opportunity to run away and join the circus!” he says.

Only, this circus is not the sort we’ve been used to having every Christmas in select spots around Malta.

“It is a coming together of various elements – part stage show, part visual treat, part circus. It celebrates our culture, but not just in a traditional sense,” Dingli points out.

“There is no big top, no sawdust ring, none of those things typically associated with traditional circuses.”

Neither is it a “strange, experimental piece. It is a large-scale, spectacular show with lots of heart. You have not seen anything like this in Malta before, I can guarantee that.”

After watching the London Olympics last year, many people were inspired (if only for five minutes) to take up a sport. For Dingli, it wasn’t Usain Bolt’s speed or Mo Farah’s ‘mobot’ victory dance that provided the inspiration, but the Danny Boyle-directed opening ceremony, which celebrated everything from the industrial revolution to the National Health System, with flocks of sheep and Mary Poppins lookalikes thrown in for good measure.

“I was lucky enough to watch the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games live in the stadium. That was a huge inspiration because it mirrored certain basic concepts I want to include in my show. It told several stories that are recognisably British; it was spectacular and had loads of heart. It was very cinematic in its approach and celebrated being British in a very positive, modern way, not just traditionally. There is a misconception that traditional equals more culturally valid. I disagree and hope to prove that in the show,” Dingli says.

Throughout the interview, the word ‘heart’ pops up intermittently, and it is clear that the trained actor does not only want his show to dazzle, but also to move his audiences.

His antics will only be reserved for the (open-air) stage, however. Asked if he would repeat circus owner Mario Sali’s stunt of locking himself in with two fully-grown tigers in protest at not having a permit, the actor – and now circus man – opts for a more conservative choice: “If I had to choose a creature, I’d lock myself up with the family dog, Zoe. She’s great company and, as I live overseas, I don’t get to spend time with her any more. Of course, it wouldn’t have the same effect, as there is absolutely nothing scary about her, but still…”

Darirari, commissioned by the Malta Arts Festival, will run on July 9, 10 and 11.

www.maltaartsfestival.org