Coven Garden "Street Theatre"

By: Matt Carona

I was walking around Covent Garden the other day and saw a crowd of people standing in a circle. As I was walking over to examine what had captured their attention I heard a man say, “thank you all for being here and helping me keep street theatre alive”. I discovered this man was just a normal street artist, however, I found it very interesting that he referred to his craft as “street theatre”. Out of curiosity (as well as knowing that this would give me something to write about for this assignment) I decided to watch his performance. It appears I got there at the perfect time because he began shouting out to the shoppers around him that he was just seconds away from performing his two main acts. The crowd easily doubled in size and he began asking for a volunteer from the audience. A girl finally raised her hand and came forward to the center of the crowd. The performer then gave her a match telling her to hold it between her teeth with the striking end sticking out. The trick was that he would spin a yo-yo in circles getting closer and closer to her face until finally it struck the match causing it to ignite. At this moment I realized how glad I was that I did not volunteer and began to enjoy the distrusting look on the girl’s face. The performer began spinning the yo-yo towards the girl’s face getting closer and closer to the end of the match but then failing to actually strike it. Initially, I believed that these “failed” attempts were all part of the performance, but when the fifth, sixth, seventh, and then tenth fail came around I realized the performance may not be going as planned. The way in which the girl’s facial expression turned from distrust to a combination of fear and anger, made this performance much more exhilarating. If I was at a play and the actor did not know what they were doing I would want my money back. On the other hand, when a street performer does not know what they are doing, as they deal with the safety of random volunteers, it makes a free show worth paying for. Finally on the 11^th attempt the street performer spun the yo-yo and struck the match causing it to ignite. Being that there were so many failed attempts, when he actually completed the trick it felt much more climactic. His next trick was the “Houdini escape artist” trick where he wears a body suit and is then wrapped in chains. I expected this trick to go more smoothly than the other, however, I joyfully had the chance to witness more complications. He chose two large men from the audience to wrap him in chains and as the men spun the last bit of chain around his body they realized they could not close the lock. Instead of trying to see what was wrong, the men were so eager to finish that they forcefully tried to slam the lock close, but instead pinched the magician’s hand in-between the lock. Now I am usually aware when a magician is faking pain to heighten the suspense, but the scream that came out of this performers mouth had an entirely different tone. I also realized he was in actual pain when he moved his mic away to talk to the men about what they were doing wrong. Eventually, the men properly tied up the magician and he completed his trick earning a large round of applause. Experiencing this performance reminded me of London because one word I always use to describe this city is vibrant. The fact that I went down to Covent Garden with the intent of shopping around, but ended up watching “street theatre” for half an hour shows the incredible vibrancy of this city.