I’m exhausted. A few nights ago I watched 5 French Canadians called MACHINE DE CIRQUE high on guts and testosterone, hurtle through 90 minutes of breathtaking (mine and theirs) acrobatics, juggling, and jocularity using bicycles, trapezes, seesaws, unicycles, ropes and poles, scaffolding and towels–yes towels–which may have been most breathtaking of all. The towels were all that kept them from being in the “all together” and me from having a heart attack.

It was boys and their toys, extending the limits of various machines on a set that looked like a junkyard tinker toy set–or the apocalypse. A musician with a guitar and a rag tag drum kit punctuated the machinations and derring do with frisky aplomb. At one point they solicited a long-haired damsel from the audience who gamely agreed to improvise an “onstage date” with one of the performers, while the rest of the troupe filled in as tables and chairs, wine stewards and a motorcycle!  I know energy cannot be created or destroyed– but I’m betting the laws of physics were somehow violated. Seeing may not be believing. Catch MACHINE DE CIRQUE  presented by Arts Emerson at the Paramount through October 2!