El Circo de la Última Estrella, Aurelio Atayde’s latest spectacle, is entering its final weeks at the big top on Avenida López Mateos Sur, between the Bugambilias and El Palomar subdivisions.
This is not the kind of circus that most Reporter readers grew up with. Since Mexico banned animal acts in circuses a decade ago, the Atayde family, whose company dates to 1888 and is one of the oldest circuses in the Americas, has had to reinvent the genre.
Their answer is a show that blends traditional circus disciplines with theater, ballet, opera and live music, structured around a narrative rather than isolated acts. The story follows two astronaut clowns who crash-land at a lost circus and find a light that could change everything. A live band accompanies the action, and the production runs about an hour and 45 minutes with an intermission.
The emotional centerpiece is the elephant. With real animals no longer on stage, Atayde commissioned a giant elephant puppet operated by five performers, and later added a baby elephant to the act. It is not there to perform tricks. It is a deliberate homage to a family that grew up around elephants, tigers and other animals, and to an era of circus that has ended.
Aurelio Atayde has described it simply as “a tribute to our family.” The effect, as one observer put it, is a figure that does not replace the memory but keeps it alive.
The show is in its last weeks. Tickets and showtimes are available at atayde.com. Cost: 250 to 1,000 pesos. A 25-percent discount is available on all seats with the code CIRCO25 at atayde.com and at the box office.