A stunning show
Cirque blends classic acrobatics with beautiful visuals
It has not been a good year for the Cirque du Soleil, from economic problems that saw many employees laid off to the recent tragic accidental death of a performer in Las Vegas.
These events have taken some of the shine off one of this country’s most intriguing artistic success stories.
How does the Cirque recover? By putting shows like Totem before audiences under its big blue-and-yellow tent.
Cirque shows are all colour and movement and marvellous music. They overwhelm the senses and that is really the point. And when the artist behind the show is the legendary Robert Lepage, the spectacle is really taken up a notch.
Totem, which debuted in 2010, is billed as a walk through evolution. It begins in the primordial stew. A spark of light — and life — is delivered from the sky by, let’s call him a star man, to a slew of small creatures living in the swamp. They immediately turned their environment in a web-like jungle gym that featured trampoline and high bar manoeuvres that immediately had the audience gasping. It was quite a start to an exhilarating evening under the big top.
As in many Cirque shows, the main theme is really a means to an end.
The real centres of interest are the amazing performers; balancing, tossing and catching bowls on their heads while they roll around on fivefoot-high unicycles.
Or chiselled acrobats gracefully contorting and twisting themselves while hanging several feet in the air on a trapeze bar or dangling from ropes and hoops and then lunging into the air over the audience.
There was a clear doffing of the cap to aboriginal culture with the presence of some talented hoop dancers. Both Eric Hernandez and Shandien Larance were just effortless in their performances. I’m a real sucker for hoop dancing.
There was one odd performance with an aboriginal couple twirling on top of a giant drum in white costumes replete with white roller skates. But the audience really loved their virtuosity on the skates, so who am I to complain?
Another virtuoso act featured the strength of the men who dare to walk, ride or jump on what are known as the Russian Bars, essentially planks used to launch performers dressed like spacemen high in the air. Ground control to Major Tom indeed.
No Cirque show would be complete without a couple of clowns, and both Pippo Crotti and especially the deadpan Mikhail Usov were hilarious. Their boat ride into the abyss was a real treat.
The Cirque is all about taking the elemental acts of the circus such as tumbling, juggling and feats of strength and twisting and turning them into something spectacular and unique. That is ultimately the timeless secret to the show’s success.
Layer on the beautiful visuals on display that featured many different scenes of water splashed over the stage canvas and add on amazing costumes and makeup and the experience is complete.
Other reviews I have read call this the Cirque’s most beautiful work ever. I’m not in a position to make that comparison because I haven’t seen enough of their shows.
Simply put, though, Totem is stunning. And a testament to the ability of this organization to overcome tough times and ensure that the show does go on.