WHEN THE CIRQUE COMES TO TOWN
It’s a high-flying act just to raise the roof for Cirque du Soleil
Workers raise a tent for Cirque du Soleil’s show Amaluna in the parking lot at Northlands on Wednesday. See more at edmontonjournal.com/photo.
How many Canucks does it take to pitch a tent?
In the case of the giant blueand-yellow striped Big Top that rose from dusty terra firma of Northlands Park around noon Thursday, about 80.
Yes, the circus has come to town, the Cirque du Soleil that is. And with it, for the first time in Edmonton, the Cirque’s trademark Grand Chapiteau, one of the biggest tour tents in the world, that will house the latest touring show, Amaluna, and an audience of 2,600. The Big Top, 51 metres in diameter, stands 19 metres high inside. The four masts soar 25 metres into the ether.
It was a formal hard-hat-and-luminous-vest occasion two days in the preparation, made speedier in the execution because of the gusty wind. Under the rallying cry of “altogether, ready, two, three, four!,” in both our official languages, the team — 10 Cirque employees and the rest local — heaved 100 poles into place manually, clockwise around the perimeter. At the end they applauded: this is showbiz, after all.
And, voila!, Edmonton had not only a new and vivid landmark, but a theatre.
Company manager Jamie Reilly, who presides over a cast and crew of 120 from 17 countries, plus the 300 locals who get hired in the course of a run — crew, popcorn vendors, program sellers, kitchen staff, janitors, and more — has seen 75 raisings in her 11 years of touring Cirque shows. But she never ceases to be wonderstruck at this big-M Moment, she says. “And when it’s in a new city, and moreover in Canada … it’s a phenomenal experience,” she says.
“The significance of a Big Top raising goes back hundreds of years,” says the exuberant Reilly, animated by a lively sense of showbiz tradition. “There’s something unique and magical about being in a circus tent: The intimacy, the proximity of the artists, the feeling connected with the production, sharing the emotions … I’m a sucker for these things.”
In her five-show history with the Montreal-based company that’s Canada’s biggest, splashiest entertainment export ever, she’s never worked one of Cirque’s arena shows: “My heart belongs with the Big Top.”
The Grand Chapiteau isn’t the only blue-and-yellow tent on the Cirque campsite, which takes a week to set up and 2-1/2 days to deconstruct. There’s an entrance tent with such theatrical accoutrements as the box office and bar. There’s a VIP tent, and a backstage tent that includes dressing rooms, wardrobe, training area and physio room. Reilly oversees all. “It’s a Cirque village,” she says with a grin. “And I’m the mayor.”
Amaluna has arrived here, from its run at Calgary’s Stampede Park, in 65 semi-trailer trucks, 18 for the show and the remainder for the infrastructure, some 2,000 tonnes of it.
“I think that people will be surprised with the emotion of it,” she says of a Cirque show whose 52-member cast is 75 per cent female.
The music, delivered by an all-female band, is a departure from Cirque worldbeat style. “I’d call it rock with a techno edge,” Reilly says. “And there are new acts we’ve never done before, traditional (acrobatic) acts reinvented in a way Cirque has never done before.”
Amaluna runs May 29 to June 23 at Northlands Park. Tickets: 1-800-450-1480, cirquedusoleil.com.