The Vanishing Elephant Coming to Orpheum Theater

TANNERSVILLE - An elephant getting lost in these Catskill mountains for nearly two weeks, 68 years ago, ain’t no big thing compared to what’s happening to a pachyderm at the Orpheum Theater, this weekend.

A traveling thespian troupe will be performing “The Vanishing Elephant” on March 2, at 2 p.m., inside the Tannersville performing arts center.

It is no secret that Janu, the huge star of the show, is not a living, breathing behemoth. Then again, try telling that to your eyes and ears and heart.

“We can let the cat out of the bag. The elephant isn’t real,” says Paul Bosco Mc Eneaney, the director and artistic director of the play with Irishy music that enchantingly entwines imagination and reality.

It is a fact, however, that The Vanishing Elephant is rooted in actual events, brought to theatrical life with puppets and good old hocus pocus.

“I’m a magic nut,” says McEneaney with an Irish brogue thicker than any mastodon’s skin, and whose theater company, CAHOOTS, is based in Belfast, Ireland.

“Magic has always been a part of who I am. I was never able to pull rabbits out of hats but I use magic in a different way, integrating it with theater storytelling.

“This production is based on a true story,” McEneaney says. “A few years ago, I was in New York City for a show on Broadway.

“I was being shown around the space for the first time when the man said to me, ‘On this very stage, Harry Houdini vanished an elephant.’”

As hard as it may be to believe, in 1918, master magician Harry Houdini caused a five-ton elephant named Jenny to disappear on stage at the Hippodrome Theatre.

The theater was gifted with the world's largest stage and a cast of trained elephants. Houdini utilized a humungous cabinet, a team of a dozen strongmen and, of course, the massive main attraction.

“Houdini was way before his time,” McEneaney says. “Never before had anyone put an elephant on stage ad have an audience believe it had vanished. It was incredibly new.

“Our inspiration came from that moment. For me, it wasn’t about the trick. I wondered what it must have been like for the elephant to be on stage, every night, in the middle of New York,

“My whole journey home, I couldn’t get it out of my head. That was much more interesting to me. That was the story that needed to be told.

“So we’ve created a story that starts in a little village in Bengal, India, and a beautiful relationship between a young boy and Janu, a baby elephant,” McEneaney says.

“The elephant is captured for the village to do labor. The boy had always dreamed of being an elephant trainer and befriends the animal.

‘A spiritual bond is quickly formed between the boy and elephant which is where the quest begins,” McEneaney says.

“The elephant is taken from the village and brought to America to join the circus. The location changes in the play and we are suddenly on a mad journey of the circus world.

“We see Janu develop and learn tricks. During one poignant moment, the elephant, who is now older, rescues an elephant trainer, resulting in a newspaper review which goes worldwide.

“Which is where Harry Houdini steps in,” McEneaney says. “Houdini buys the elephant and the young boy, who is now an old man, reads the description of the elephant and realizes it is Janu.

“The old man makes his last journey, to America, to reconnect. It’s an epic story told with an amazing ensemble of puppeteers, many moving parts,  and three elephants in different stages of life.”

A tiger may also appear as the puppeteers spin their magic and serve as storytellers. “We pull off vanishing a life-sized elephant on stage,” McEneaney says with a liltingly laugh.

“That took a lot of time to work out but this is our passion. We are grateful that audiences around the world like it, and we are very excited about bringing the show to the Orpheum and the Catskills.”

Over a half-century ago, Siam the elephant wandered off from the Vidbel Farm in Windham, the winter home of the Vidbel Circus.

Her twelve-day perambulation in a non-digital Age generated a nationwide stir until she was gently captured and returned to the farm, “taking rum in her food and water to get rid of chills,” a news report noted.

No such imbibing will be necessary to experience the warmth of The Vanishing Elephant, presented by the Catskill Mountain Foundation. Telephone (518) 263-2063 for information.