The Sarrasani Circus in Opole. On Entertainment in the City in the First Decades of the 20th Century
The Sarrasani Circus in Opole. On Entertainment in the City in the First Decades of the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: The article presents outcomes of the transformation of ethnographic shows into circus acts at the example of Sarrasani Circus performances in Opole (German: Oppeln) in the beginning of the 20th century. The author examines how circus performances created experience of the extraordinary on stage by presenting faraway, distant, exotic cultures. Thus ethnographic shows in the Sarrasani Circus were an element of magic world of wonders performed at arena. The circus visited Opole thrice: in 1913, 1928 and 1933 becoming one of the main attractions in the city. Each time the shows were preceded by a huge advertising campaign in the local German- and Polish-language press. Press articles, notes and advertisements along with scarce archival data constitute the main source for the analysis, though they offer a very specific image of the past. Taking this into account, the author focuses on the manner of conceptualizing exotic cultures to make them attractive to the city audience. Such an approach enables research on the process of presenting exotic ethnic groups within a framework of city entertainment in the first decades of the 20th century. Therefore what the author describes is a way in which distant cultures become a stage attraction, a circus trick and an element co-creating a fantastic reality on arena.

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