Breathtaking acts delight crowd at Cirque’s Kurios

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/06/2017 (3226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Walking into the Big Top at Cirque du Soleil’s Kurios — Cabinet of Curiosities is like entering an entirely different world.

Unlike the vastness of Bell MTS Place, the 2,600-seat (air conditioned) venue raised at the intersection of Sterling Lyon Parkway and Kenaston Boulevard gives off an intimate vibe; every seat feels close to the stage. For many Winnipeggers, Kurios is the first chance they’ll have to experience Cirque in this way, where all the costumes, props and performers are visible in striking detail because they’re only a few metres away.

The stage, designed to look like a laboratory out of the 19th century but with modern touches, has very little negative space; a large clock-shaped entry/exit point frames the back of the circular stage —which has seating three-quarters of the way around — while two cabinets, which one would assume to be the cabinets of curiosities, glow on either side. There’s a lot to look at, sometimes too much, but it is undeniably impressive.

The show began before the show began; as audience members trickled into their seats, a host of characters had already inhabited the stage — a scientist sat in an oversized wooden chair as his robot-looking creations swept up around the lab, and another man sat on a platform high above the crowd, tossing paper airplanes to the stage below. Then, as the clock struck 11:11, the scientist began his journey that lasted just one minute for him, but 2-1/2 hours for the audience (including a 25-minute intermission).

The story is focused on the scientist, or Seeker, who is convinced another universe is contained within his cabinet of curiosities. As he explores this dream world, a cast of characters is revealed, who then perform various gasp-worthy feats; balancing, flipping, bending, and yes, some clowning, too.

As with almost every other Cirque show, the narrative was pretty loose. However, people don’t go see a Cirque show to dive deep into an intricate plotline, and it’s safe to assume no one cares what the Seeker is up to when there’s a woman riding a suspended bicycle upside down in mid-air.

Without giving too much away, Kurios is a steady stream of breathtaking acts completed, seemingly with ease, by some of the best athletes you’ll see anywhere. Literal squeals of delight from kids and adults alike echoed through the tent, especially during the final two numbers of the first half, which included a pair of very stressful performances: one involving dining room chairs and the other a balancing act featuring a very unsteady tower of stacked cylinders on a moving platform.

Never has a Winnipeg crowd sounded so invested and enthusiastic as they did Friday night; as if on cue, they oohed as two men on straps glided through the air and over the audience; they aahed when another man wielding two yo-yos whizzed them by his own face at the speed of light; they belly-laughed as the clowning comic relief for the night imitated a cat with freakish accuracy. There was genuine, and deserved, amazement in every reaction.

Costumes and music, too, are worth noting. The soundtrack is live, with a relatively small band and one vocalist handling the entire show and, in short, they are stellar. The costumes for the artists are mind-bogglingly detailed with intricate patterns — be it replicating fabrics such as wool or tweed or creating a fish-like skin —that have all been printed on stretchy material ideal for bending into a multitude of painful-looking positions.

And, there were three recurring characters that were dressed to the nines; a man with pants that resembled the folds on an accordion, a woman with a skirt made of rings she could manoeuvre and another man fitted with a domed belly, inside of which a woman — one of the ten smallest people in the world at 39 inches tall and weighing just 40 pounds — was sitting. There is not shortage of weirdness in Kurios, that’s for certain.

There is little to find fault with in Kurios — though occassionally overwhelming, it is a spectacle in the best possible way, and one that will likely have more than a few Winnipeggers considering running away to the circus before the show’s five-week run is up in July.

* * *

Reviewers note: Two points of interest unrelated to the quality of the show itself; One major quibble when Odysseo was in town was parking, mainly issues getting in and out of the lot directly next to the tent venue. This has not been remedied with Kurios. Exiting took around 25 minutes, with many near-accidents along the way. And there is a fee for parking — it’ll run you $15, so take cash or a debit card.

Also, due to the way the seating is set up, it is even more disruptive than usual when ticket-holders show up late, which happened numerous times during the first half of the performance Friday night. If you plan on seeing Kurios, for the sake of all those around you, show up on time.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel