Overview

Narrated by an English gentlemen, the show is filled with strange and dark characters, including the last living Dodo. These characters can be live action, illustrated or a mix of the two. Dr Sweet-Tooth uses the Dodo as a distraction, to allow the performers to escape the big top and allow the audience to be attacked by lions. It turns out all of the performers have been forced to perform by Dr Sweet-Tooth, because he's a cruel bastard.

Style

Dark, macabre. Gritty. Creepy. Not zany or fun filled. Walking on the edge between disgusting and intriguing.

Setting

Inside the tent is a circular 'stage'. The crowd is split into four stall sections making up a circle, with a wide gap (10ft or so) between the stalls, for performers to enter - where they can remain in darkness until they are coming out. High above the performance area, in the very middle, is a large brass cage with a flat top - which Dr Sweet-Tooth stands upon. It has chains holding it up. High ceilings that seem to be far off in the distance, due to the lighting. The kind of way that people don't notice the walls in a room when there's something else happening in the room, if you know my meaning. That the crowd are otherwise distracted.


Characters 

DR SWEET-TOOTH
skinny, whitefaced, messy and greasy haired, ring-master in a loose black jacket (with tails), grotesquely slender legs and a top hat, though he holds it more than he wears it. His moves are disjointed, his face and smile is chaotic, and his eyes are always darting around the crowd.

PIANIST
skinny, tall, his face shadowed by a very tall top hat, which a grin and crazy eyes peer out of on close-up. He has seven fingers on each of his hands and have horribly long toes and toenails. 

JUGGLERS
unfed, skinny, almost naked, amputees, with splints attached to their knees (spikes rammed right into the bone to give him them better balance). They are hairy with beards.

TRAPEZISTS
they're blind, so their eyes are vacant. They flail about, somewhat graceful with their lack of grace.

CROWD
Era: Edwardian/World War I. 1901-1918. Picture prohibition era, Boardwalk Empire style. It isn't a poor crowd, but it isn't a rich crowd.

Men: waistcoats, jackets, shirts, ties, tweed, herringbone. 
Women: shirtwaists, corsages, broad-brimmed hats, feathers, fake flowers.
Children: like their parents, only smaller.

DODO
weak, looks shagged, his feathers are all falling out and he looks drunk, and stumbles as such, falling about the place.

LIONS
to look like lions.

Wanted

VOICE ACTORS
Older English-gentlemen type (30 years old+)
Young English Girl (6-10 year old)
Older Cockney Ring-Master (30 years old+)