The performers, who wore tattered suit coats and scuffed leather shoes, were actors as much as acrobats, dancers as much as daredevils.
A clown show without at least a smidgen of pathos would be like a doughnut without a hole, and so Mr. Shiner shuffles onstage in a tattered suit, with brown-bagged bottle in hand, to milk our tears in a solo sequence called "The Hobo".
The collection, as usual, was so full of intentionally bizarre get-ups — scuba skorts and a halter-top jumpsuit, for example — that it would have been easy to overlook a throwaway tattered gray suit that bore holes and crude stitches, as if it had been worn by a hobo; or, get this, a pair of sweat pants.
Within minutes a squirrelly Sully in a tattered track suit proudly boasted to me, "I was Joe Perry's OC dealer for two years!" before disappearing into a valley of Scally caps and Styrofoam Dunkin' Donuts cups.
More than a year later, in June 2007, the skeletal remains of 13 people, along with tattered track suits and identification cards, were discovered in the desert between Falluja and Ramadi.
When I board the train, I see many local travelers dressed up for the ride — Tibetan men wearing tattered pinstriped suits along with traditional high boots — though as we approach 16,000 feet, some Chinese train riders ruin their clothing by lying on the floor, moaning as their heads ache from the thin air.
A lot of them were quite upset, like, 'What's that going to do to my business out here?' I said, 'I can't tell you, but it's not good.' " Dennis, wearing custom-made red leather boots and a slightly tattered blue spandex suit bulked up with memory foam, positioned himself in front of the theatre.
("I just flew in from Washington from a business meeting," he explained, promising that the suit was old and tattered).
Or tattered cloth, as the case may be.
Seldom has that cause looked more tattered.
The costumes by Olga Akhmatovakaya are stunning -- richly textured silk gowns, smartly cut suits and top hats and wonderfully tattered rags.
