Cirque du Soleil adds speed, elegance with Crystal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/10/2018 (2791 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After seeing Cirque du Soleil performers lace up skates, the only thing that comes to mind is this: Why haven’t they thought of this before?

The Montreal theatrical company, known for its death-defying acrobatics, amusing clowns and elaborate costumes and sets, has added an icy level of difficulty with its latest show Crystal.

The two-hour extravaganza, which began a seven-show run at Bell MTS Place that winds up Sunday, had no shortage of Cirque’s patented aerial stunt work, but by adding skaters, it injects a level of elegance and speed that other touring Cirque shows just can’t match.

Other Cirque shows dazzle audiences by transporting them to faraway lands or distant galaxies, but Crystal works, especially in a place like Winnipeg, because it takes us to a recognizable wintry milieu. Therefore it’s easy to marvel at all the spectacular skating.

Crystal is a girl who uses skating to escape the drudgery of family time in front of the idiot box, the droning of multiplication tables at school and, after the intermission, the monotony of secretarial work.

She falls through the ice at a pond, and like Alice in Wonderland or Dorothy and Toto, is transported to a fantasyland, where figure skaters, hockey players and street style daredevils right out of the X Games are celebrated.

The set is dominated by a giant mountain-like structure with several ramps and a staircase where Crystal makes her entrances. Frosty trees are scattered on the ice and a light layer of fog creates a winter night — not unlike the unwelcome autumn storm that enveloped Winnipeg on Wednesday.

They even had booster cables.

The effect created a romantic dreamworld where Crystal cavorts with office workers who perform backflips on skates, pole climbers, jugglers and speedy hockey players who aren’t afraid to go to the net — and then soar right over it.

It’s not all edges and spins though. The best stunts are performed 10 metres above the ice, where the scoreboard is usually perched at the downtown arena.

Prior to the intermission, Crystal, still with her skates on, soars skyward on a trapeze swing and performs twists and spins. It looks hard enough until you realize she’s still wearing her skates, and sticking the landings on the narrow swing.

Later, another acrobat not only had to build his own tree made of stylized office furniture, he balanced precariously on the rickety looking apparatus before taking it all apart himself and dismounting. Such industriousness and politeness can only be found in a Canadian company.

You’d be wise taking your seats about 15 minutes before the scheduled showtime. A clown entertains the earlybirds with snowball hijinks, and the skaters warm up with far more rigour than the mundane stretches and laps that NHL teams take prior to games.

alan.Small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall