One of Rafael Pl·'s ancestors staked his wife in a game of cards and lost. His father was a famous ventriloquist in the Sixties. Another of his relatives, or perhaps himself, has explored the deepest uncharted jungles and gathered myths, legends and fantastic beings that he keeps in a secret warehouse in Valencia. This is where he hides a shy, Lilliputian Negro who was chief of his tribe, which no longer exists today, and still wears a shinbone tied to the top part of his head as a sign of his eminent rank. He is very shy, and every time they let go of him, he clings to the visitors' trousers.       He also has the beautiful and legendary mermaid of Atlantis, the bearded woman, and the talking head, always full of serious thoughts.       All of these beings are cared for by a contortionist, who plays the violin with his foot, and are under the careful supervision of Miss Amparito, the intrepid "ecuyere", who practices on a wooden horse.       And, dear reader, the circus nowadays has lost its fantasy. In the old circuses, the spectator was not able to sense what was to happen, and imagination (an essential element in artistic creation) was mixed with reality in such a way that the audience truly believed that they could see Buffalo Bill himself or the President Washington's wet nurse.       Today's circus is made of plastic. It is a factory where the artiste becomes an employee-civil servant and the spectator a passive consumer.       A new impresario had to emerge from this, someone who would restore the true classical circus with its sawdust smelling of elephant's dung and tiger's urine, with clowns to make us cry and contortionists with whom to fall madly in love. This is the circus-adventure that every child wants to run away with so that the adults will not steal their dreams.

Rafael Pla		Premonition		Philosophy		Curriculum		Total Show