I’ve never seen Cirque and have always longed to. It was SO worth the wait! Here’s what I saw:

Color. And light. And color. And music (Berna Ceppas Composer and Musical Director) – or sound, any road -- Sound Designer Jonathan Deans says, “I need the audience to know they are entering a different world.”  Oh yeah.

It's difficult to find words for just what it is these unbelievably talented performers are doing:  Gymnastics? Yes. Acrobatics? Certainly. Pantomime? Oh yeah. Dance? Definitely … as well as trapeze, balancing, somersaulting, tightrope (and slackrope!), trampoline … oh my oh my!!  Still photos just can’t capture a contortionist pretzeling (how often can you use pretzel as a verb?)  herself til she’s smiling at us from between the soles of her feet. Oy vey.   

Costume Designer Liz Vandal says, “I try to make the body dynamic and reveal its intrinsic beauty.”  And these bodies have beaucoup intrinsic beauty! Limber and flexible is simply baseline; willowy and sleek are appropriate but inadequate; shapely and supple, certainly …  I’d say genderless (a look I’ve always loved) but I don’t want to target either Cirque or Buzz for investigation by the Federal Bureau for Rampant Incipience.

Beautiful.  Beautiful.  Beautiful.

We can’t expect even these amazing bodies in Vandal’s mind-blowing costumes and breathtaking makeup (Julie Bégin is Make-up Designer) to wow us by just hanging out, right? Here’s where the phenomenal backstage crew comes in. Rigging and Acrobatic Equipment Designer Fred Gérard complains: “there’s always this troublemaker getting in the equipment designer’s way. His name is Newton” … with his pesky theory: gravity. But Gérard manages to do that irksome detail one in the eye repeatedly.

Says Set and Props Designer Gringo Cardia “I’m satisfied when the viewer enters another dimension, and all senses are engaged.” Oh, yeah! But the performers can’t do Cardia’s amazing sets justice without Deborah Colker, OVO’s Writer, Director and Choreographer [whew! Big job yeah?], madworking with Chantal Tremblay, the Director of Creation. Now ask yourself: how many productions of any sort have you seen that have a Staff Director of Creation? That kinda makes her a god, n’est ce pas? And you’d expect a god to begin creation with the lowest of creatures, right?

Oh! Didn’t I mention? OVO is about bugs.

That’s right, BUGS.  Beautiful, playful, frolicsome, mischievous, gleeful, coquettish bugs. FABULOUS bugs! Nothing is spoken in words but there is a great deal of communication: squeaks and chitters, twitters and yatter, wordless ska and pantomime –all lucid, even fluent.

The show’s lodestar is a humongous Egg. Picture it: this enormous mysterious thing suddenly appears, reminding us of the monolith from Kubrick’s 2001. Is it any wonder it’s venerated by the insectile population? The egg is, of course, a universal symbol of life and fertility, and in OVO it’s lugged here and there, reappearing in different places at different points in the show.  BTW, OVO is, of course, egg in Portuguese.  Not to mention that OVO hides an insect in its name: the two “Os” represent the eyes while the letter “V” forms the nose.  

The Voyager is a fly, constantly in buzzing motion, and he’s a bit of a dramaqueen, arriving onstage with that big ol’ enigma of an Egg strapped to his shoulders! But despite this  imposing laissez-passer, Voyager turns bashful the minute he lays eyes on LadyBug. [I’m glad he’s not  prone to blushing – the red with his green costume would make for a rather bizarre Christmas vibe.] Any road, it’s abundantly obvious that at his first glimpse of LadyBug he’s instantly twitterpated!   

Can’t say as I blame him – so was I, and I ain’t no cockchafer [just means beetle but I couldn’t resist]! Ladybug is quite the little cupcake; a true cutie patootie and full of life – literally! Dainty and dimpling, she just knows something wonderful is about to happen in her life… no mystery about that, as she’s visibly about sevenmonths pregnant. To my relief, Ladybug didn’t do a lot of death-defying acrobatics – I’m naturally conservative (a word not often used to describe me) with pregnant poppets, regardless of species.

Voyager’s little dalliance is gleefully championed by the entire coleopteran community, generated and galvanized by Master Flipo, the buoyant, irrepressible chief of the insect coterie. Everyone respects and likes Master Flipo, though he can be very silly at times – like when he and Voyager are getting high whiffing Raid!  He’s smart and wise – but unquestionably a queer duck as well. (oh dear. I seem determined to get Cirque and Buzz targeted.) ( Um … they’ll target me too! Uh oh. Better straighten up and fly right.) (Tries.) (Does about as well as Delta Flight 4819.)  

These three, Ladybug, Voyager, and Master Flipot, are the ringleaders of CIRQUE – a triumvirate toastmaster, and any time they take the stage one knows to expect something buzzworthy … like, just for instance, dozens of doyens dazzling us with virtually indescribable acrobatics. 

Crickets are the key insects in the show. At times they have detachable legs that break away from their bodies, giving the impression that there is an insect invasion going on. “I have a particular soft spot for these characters,” costumer Vandal admits, “because they’re so sexy, graphic and vibrant.” [Note, please, that the costumer views crickets as sexy, graphic and vibrant – descriptors I don’t often see applied to 6-legged folks.]

CIRQUE DU SOLIEL is a classic success story. Guide and founder Guy Laliberté, a young accordionist, stilt-walker and fire-eater, recognized and cultivated the talents of Quebec City’s street performers, molding them into Cirque du Soleil in 1984. Cirque now operates on five continents.  Eat your heart out, Horatio Alger.

Artistic Guide Gilles Ste-Croix also collaborated with street artists [I’m sensing a pattern here] to organize a street performance festival called the Fête foraine de Baie-Saint-Paul, which in 1984 would lead to the founding of Cirque du Soleil with Guy Laliberté. Nominated Senior Vice-President of Creative Content and New Project Development in 2006, Gilles currently focuses on his role as Cirque’s Creative Guide.  

In 1999, Acrobatic Performance Designer Philippe Aubertin was hired to train artists at the company’s international headquarters in Montréal. Philippe’s first engagement as a Creator came in 2007 with his appointment as Acrobatic Performance Designer of OVO. His dual creative principles are, “the safety of the artists can never be compromised, but I’m also determined they never forget the ‘fun factor’ on stage.”

Safety.

One expects Cirque to lose several artists annually, particularly the newbies. Certainly, there are dozens of injuries, significant or trivial, but since 2018 Cirque has suffered only four casualties, including 42-year-old set technician Olivier Rochette, son of Cirque du Soleil co-founder Gilles Ste-Croix. Knowing this magnifies my enjoyment of OVO.

Enough. Enough trying to describe the indescribable, enough acclamation for the inexpressible. I’ve virtually worn out my virtual thesaurus … Just GO SEE IT!