Sunday, August 24, 2014
Cirque’s Kurios represents a bold return to early days
www.cirquefascination.com: For Cirque du Soleil, what happens in Vegas winds up in Toronto.
Kurios — Cabinet of Curiosities, the latest touring show from the Quebec company, opens at the Port Lands on Aug. 28. It’s a bold return to the early days of Cirque, filled with unique performers, a handmade style of design and a desire to entertain, rather than impress.
But the show’s origins can clearly be traced to Sin City on a night 14 months earlier.
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3 comments:
The disappointing truth about a lot of these big fantastical corporations is that they're... well... corporations. They start as something and they tend to go towards the money. You see it with Disney and, here, with Cirque... it's all about the money.
This summer I was working for a costumer and she had told me her experience with Cirque du Soleil. She had worked for Cirque for a while and it was the dream job, that is until she was actually doing it. She said it was the worst experience of her life. In the costume department, you (one person) is not creating these amazing costumes! No you as one person, you're good at sewing zippers into elastic... you know how to sew feathers onto the fabric... well there, that's your job.
Money makes the world go round. (If this were true, I would prefer the world to stop but that's a whole different story) I'm glad, though, that Cirque is going back to what made it what it was. I think that's really what Cirque is anyway. Side shows were always fun because you would see things that you could never believe. It's a spectacle, they are all spectacles and that's what entertainment should be... amazement.
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Having worked for Cirque this summer I finally got to see what was behind the magic curtain, as some might say. And as much as money is involved in creating and maintaining their productions, it’s still very much more about the art. Yes, some shows have been more successful than others, and yes, Cirque has become a giant within the entertainment industry, and yes Cirque is not everyone. However, summer stocks and regional theatres have had productions and companies that were more successful than others, and some of them could even be considered giants among men, while others are clinging to every penny, and even those companies aren’t for everyone. There was a time when Cirque was over saturating the market and it didn’t pan and like with Iris they tried to produce some works that have floundered….including Elvis, and Zarkana once it was placed in residency within the same theatre Elvis once called home. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t bad shows, or lacking in artistic value (acrobatic or aesthetic). I’ve heard that Iris was placed in a poor market and had less than adequate publicity, but was still an amazing show artistically, Elvis and Zarkana on the other have no trouble within the Vegas market, but are challenged more by their location on the strip….but to be honest it’s not just the show that has problems but the hotels there too. It’s no secret that the Cosmopolitan next door has changed hands more than once and suffered financially, and the Aria, which has housed both Elvis and now Zarkana is no different. Furthermore, if you were to study the numbers within the Vegas entertainment market you would see that in the past two-five years attendance numbers have been in decline across the board, including Blue Man and other shows.
Now to address the remarks working for Cirque du Soleil…..I don’t think it’s fair to attack the company or that shows costume department based on the experience of one person, nor do I think that just may experience can defend it either. However I do think that working for Cirque isn’t for everyone, unless you are fortunate enough to work on the creation of a show, your job and priority are to support the artists and the production. Primarily by performing maintenance and running shows….it’s in the job description. So if you don’t want to fix buttons, sew zippers into elastic or feathers on fabric, inspect motors, fix lights, mop stages…etc. THEN DON’T WORK THERE. I had an amazing experience this summer interacting daily with artists and crew members from around the world and all walks of life as we came together to produce two flawless shows twice a night, 5 nights a week. Some of them had been there since the shows creation almost 12 years ago, some of them had been there a couple weeks. Every night they all approached their job with a passion and respect for the art they were supporting, not just the artists and acrobats – but every electrician, rigger, automation tech and costume too.
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Finally, to address this unfortunate stab in the article, “But something went wrong along the way. And that night in Vegas was a powerful reminder to Cirque that the life of one artist meant more than all the commercial success in the world.” That accident was horrific, but it had nothing to do with the company has grown. It was exactly that, something that went wrong….an accident, and should not be exploited as anything more.
Now I for one can’t wait to see Cirque’s Kurios, I’ve heard nothing but incredible things for months. And it has nothing to do with them going back to their roots, it’s about seeing an incredibly moving show wrought with wonderfully talented artists. Cirque always has been and always will be so much more than a side show full of spectacle and wonder, in fact it’s quite far from it. It’s that expectation and feeling that is all so often a plague upon theatre companies across the world and the cause of their downfall. Cirque is a family, a community, and it just happens to be a rather large one. Cirque was one of the most welcoming, nurturing and incredible companies that I’ve ever worked for, and I’ll be the first to tell you that they’re not perfect. But what company is, and if you attend any show, in any city, anywhere in the world only expecting spectacle and amazement, than you’re being foolish and ignorant and you’re bound to be let down, even at a Cirque show. It’s just not fair yourself or the artists.
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