A Story of Love, Tragedy and Aspiration

BOOK YOUR FREE TICKET HERE: https://tinyurl.com/3wuu8fus

Urban Angels create emotionally charged work that responds to interesting spaces, places and stories. We are currently celebrating the extraordinary life of a very talented but unsung Black Victorian circus equestrian and impresario: Pablo Fanque.

The arc of Pablo’s life spans from rags to riches and back to rags; born in a workhouse, sold to a circus as an apprentice, he will have learned contortion, tight-rope and acrobatics, before finally becoming an extremely skilled equestrian. Uniquely, his horses ‘danced’ to the music rather than the musicians following the horses.

Moving amongst high society, Pablo was patronised by Queen Victoria, who gifted him a horse from her stables. Yet he also experienced trauma and tragedy. His circus was destroyed by a cyclone near Harewood and his first wife, Susannah, was killed by his circus building collapsing on her. Decades later, Pablo was immortalised on the Beatles ‘Sgt Pepper’ album, in Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite.

Urban Angels will present this moving play in our gorgeous hand-painted circus ring. We will present a dynamic, accessible performance integrating verbatim material from posters and newspapers, new writing, dance and physical theatre to some banging tunes from the Noughties!

More information and tickets here

Urban Angels Circus won a Practitioner Grant from the Society in 2024