A dose of Salts...: Phare

If any of you lovely people are heading to Siem Reap in the future, Phare is an absolute must see!!

This is an incredible social enterprise that started with 9 students and their French Art Teacher who formed an expressive arts group in the refugee camp back in the 90s when they were escaping from the Pol Pot regime. On returning to their home town of Battambang the 9 students decided to set up their own company and art school which offered free education to under-priveledged children in the Battambang region. This later developed a music school and a theatre school, and eventually a circus school. Today over 1,700 pupils attend the different schools, where they gain a free education, funded by benefactors and from tickets sales from their shows in Siem Reap and Battambang. In other words, Phare is flippin’ awesome.

We’d heard great things about the show so convinced Jeremy and Alycia (who were also still in Siem Reap) to join us in watching a performance one evening. It was simply superb! The show is loosely set around a ‘moral’ story (disfigured man gets bullied by friends > man seeks help from beautiful spirit > spirit turns man into beautiful goddess > friends fall in love with goddess > goddess makes fools of friends > friends try to kill goddess > spirit saves the day and tells everyone off for being silly and turns goddess back into man who is miraculously no longer disfigured > everyone makes up and is happy and celebrates by showing off how good they are at juggling and doing backflips), but the story is mainly just a vessel for showing off their incredible acrobatic talents. It is also wonderfully comedy (the main character took a liking to Jeremy which we found hilarious!) so the entire show is entertaining, ridiculously impressive, and you feel good as your money is supporting a good cause.

Here are some crappy pictures from the show which as usual in no way do it justice, but give you a taste of what it’s about.