197.
CIRKOPOLIS
The
star on top of the Christmas tree of 2013’s holiday theatre offerings proves to
be yet another circus-oriented show, with beautiful young men and women performing
remarkable feats of acrobatic and gymnastic derring-do, climbing poles,
juggling, flying through the air, balancing in unbelievable ways, rolling
around in large wheels, hanging from straps, cavorting on a trapeze, and
otherwise using their muscular and flexible bodies to do what most of us can
only dream of. The show is CIRQUE ELOIZE CIRKOPOLIS and it edges out in overall unity of
design and conceptual artistry its recent rivals, including LA SOIRÉE, MOTHER
AFRICA, and those parts of NUTCRACKER ROUGE that put it in a similar category.
CIRKOPOLIS, the ninth show produced
by a Quebec-based company called Cirque Éloize, is at NYU’s attractive Skirball
Center for the Performing Arts. It is the creation of Jeannot Painchaud,
artistic director and co-director, and Dave St. Pierre, co-director and
choreographer, who fill the large stage with projected still and moving,
computer-generated images of the oppressive, fast-paced, dehumanizing world of
the modern urban jungle..
A
picture of a city skyline shows it being supported by a giant mass of gears, making
it a mechanical monster that seems to make the people living and working in it
into robot-like cogs whose lives are devoted to going and coming in an endless
stream of work-related tasks devoted to keeping the entire thing moving. The black
and white graphics of huge, impersonal environments, often dominated by giant
filing cabinets, create a combined retro and futuristic world, reminiscent of
Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent movie, METROPOLIS (which probably inspired its title),
including scenes that show the workers trudging mechanically to and fro like
downtrodden robots. There’s also a touch of Sophie Treadwell’s 1929 play,
MACHINAL (soon to open at the Roundabout). Robert Massicotte is credited with
having designed the striking sets and for co-designing the memorable video
projections with Alexis Laurence. The excellent lighting is by Nicolas Descôteaux.
Photo: CIRQUE ELOIZE CIRKOPOLIS
Designer
Liz Vandal’s costumes, mainly drab suits, coats, and fedoras, are predominantly
in shades of gray, but as the show progresses a number of primary colors are
introduced, especially in the women’s silken shifts, to contrast brilliantly
with the grays; they also show up in the men’s ties and, in some cases, their
cuffs. The scenic scheme remains black, white, and gray, but the final moments
introduce a wonderful bit where the stacks of white paper that dominate so many
scenes are replaced by multicolored ones that are sent flying into the air to
create a shower of brilliant hues.
Despite
the dullness of their existence, the workers find ways to brighten their
environment by the pride they take in their physical abilities; the various
skills on display are put to work both to represent the impersonal
mechanization of the workers’ lives (huge gears keep turning in the background
of most projected scenes) and to suggest their inner delight in overcoming such
depersonalization by the pleasure they take in their respective talents. Most,
in fact, are multitalented, able to perform in several circus specialties.
Photo: CIRQUE ELOIZE CIRKOPOLIS
concept of a large, rolling, metal hoop and used it
to create something unique. CIRKOPOLIS goes a step further when it includes the
woman (Angelica Bongiovonni) and her male lover in the act, showing how two artists could make
something so simple as maneuvering a metal hoop into a demonstration of dexterity
and grace. The show also includes a German wheel act, in which five men do
astonishing feats in what is essentially the cyr wheel doubled, that is, two
metal hoops joined together by a small number of bars.
Photo: CIRQUE ELOIZE CIRKOPOLIS
In
other routines, a man (Ashley Carr) falls in love with a woman’s filmy dress hanging on a
clothes rack and dances acrobatically with it; three women in red shifts show
what can be done when hanging from the same trapeze; practically the entire
company engages in a mass juggling act, throwing juggling clubs across the
stage while one fellow stands unfazed amidst the blizzard of flying objects; a
couple runs through various mating rituals while clambering up and down a pole
and doing hair-raising feats of gymnastic adroitness; a Diabolo specialist does
amazing things that overshadow even the Diabolo tricks in MOTHER AFRICA, and
then is joined by two other DIABOLO performers; a teeterboard act sends
acrobats soaring, and so on.
Photos: CIRQUE ELOIZE CIRKOPOLIS
Although
there is occasionally some chatter in French, there is no dialogue per se
during the show, but Stéfan Boucher’s impressively atmospheric, and sometimes
throbbingly rhythmic score combining sound and music adds immeasurably to the
production’s auditory pleasures.
CIRKOPOLIS
closes out the theatre year with flair, but circus performances are still no
substitute for solid drama and heart-lifting musicals, too few of which—apart from
several terrific revivals—have raised the dramatic bar this season. Here’s to
better things from our dramatists, composers, lyricists, and librettists in
2014. Circuses, burlesques, revues, and jukebox musicals are necessary, but let
us not forget that, when it comes to the theatre that opens our minds, sears
our souls, and changes our lives, “the play’s the thing.”