The entrance of the dark beast, "running strongly" reminded me of the demonic pursuer of Mary Hyde/Mary Lamb, as she dreams it toward the end of Martin Amis's novel Other People. The effect of a dancer who is revealed as standing upright when his or her costumed self was upside down is a Central European, Asian, probably universal entertainment that has seen service from ancient times all the way to vaudeville and beyond. This performance, with its surprises, reminded me of the circus Huck Finn sneaks into and is completely fooled by the blustering drunk who insists on joining the bareback riders' performance, and then rides frantically around the circus ring faster and faster, shedding a blizzard of ragged clothes until he stands revealed, gliding along erect with his arms folded, as the star of the show.
A. BROWN
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From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum on behalf of D. Barton Johnson
Reply To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 1:03 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: EDITOR's Query: ADA's variety acts
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 9:55 AM
Subject: circus acts query
I have been trying to determine whether the variety acts described below in Nabokov's ADA are based on actual performances or are imaginary. No luck--in part because I have no idea of how to approach the question. What such acts are called? Have any of you seen such acts?
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FROM NABOKOV's NOVEL ADA.
The stage would be empty when the curtain went up; then, after five heartbeats of theatrical suspense, something swept out of the wings, enormous and black, to the accompaniment of dervish drums. The shock of his powerful and precipitous entry affected so deeply the children in the audience that for a long time later, in the dark of sobbing insomnias, in the glare of violent nightmares, nervous little boys and girls relived, with private accretions, something similar to the ‘primordial qualm,’ a shapeless nastiness, the swoosh of nameless wings, the unendurable dilation of fever which came in a cavern draft from the uncanny stage. Into the harsh light of its gaudily carpeted space a masked giant, fully eight feet tall, erupted, running strongly in the kind of soft boots worn by Cossack dancers. A voluminous, black shaggy cloak of the burka type enveloped his silhouette inquiétante (according to a female Sorbonne correspondent — we’ve kept all those cuttings) from neck to knee or what appeared to be those sections of his body. A Karakul cap surmounted his top. A black mask covered the upper part of his heavily bearded face. The unpleasant colossus kept strutting up and down the stage for a while, then the strut changed to the restless walk of a caged madman, then he whirled, and to a clash of cymbals in the orchestra and a cry of terror (perhaps faked) in the gallery, Mascodagama turned over in the air and stood on his head.
In this weird position, with his cap acting as a pseudopodal pad, he jumped up and down, pogo-stick fashion — and suddenly came apart. Van’s face, shining with sweat, grinned between the legs of the boots that still shod his rigidly raised arms. Simultaneously his real feet kicked off and away the false head with its crumpled cap and bearded mask. The magical reversal ‘made the house gasp.’ Frantic (‘deafening,’ ‘delirious,’ ‘a veritable tempest of’) applause followed the gasp. He bounded offstage — and next moment was back, now sheathed in black tights, dancing a jig on his hands. pp. 183-4
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For the tango, which completed his number on his last tour, he was given a partner, a Crimean cabaret dancer in a very short scintillating frock cut very low on the back. She sang the tango tune in Russian:
Pod znóynïm nébom Argentínï,
Pod strástnïy góvor mandolinï
‘Neath sultry sky of Argentina,
To the hot hum of mandolina
Fragile, red-haired ‘Rita’ (he never learned her real name), a pretty Karaite from Chufut Kale, where, she nostalgically said, the Crimean cornel, kizil’, bloomed yellow among the arid rocks, bore an odd resemblance to Lucette as she was to look ten years later. During their dance, all Van saw of her were her silver slippers turning and marching nimbly in rhythm with the soles of his hands. pp. 185