Song of the circus
Cirque du Soleil’s Delirium promises much more than acrobatics
Marlo Campbell



Don’t be fooled by the elaborate props, stunning visuals and world-class acrobatics — Delirium, the latest offering from Montreal’s legendary Cirque du Soleil production company, is actually all about music.

Carmen Ruest, director of creation for the show, compares it to “a rock concert tour.”

She’s not kidding. Delirium will require 20 18-wheel trailers and 14 tour buses just to transport its stage equipment, performers and technical crew to the MTS Centre on Aug. 25.

It’s the first time the highly acclaimed Cirque du Soleil has ever taken one of its shows on the road, and the first time it’s attempted something on such a large scale.

“We couldn’t even rehearse in the Montreal studio because the scenography was too big,” Ruest says in a thick Quebecois accent.

With its tight, three-month rehearsal schedule falling smack in the middle of the Canadian hockey season, every nearby arena was booked, forcing performers to abandon Montreal altogether and practise in an abandoned warehouse an hour’s drive from the city.

On the plus side, as a travelling show Delirium can take its unique brand of performance to the fans rather than wait for the fans to come to La Belle Province.

Ruest has been a member of Cirque du Soleil since its inception, or as she puts it, “since before the beginning.”

“They call us ‘the pioneers,’” she says.

In the early ’80s she was part of a troupe of street performers in Quebec, dancing on stilts with Gilles Ste-Croix (who eventually became the first director of creation at Cirque).

Fellow troupe member Guy Laliberté, a musician and fire-breather, came up with the idea of a circus show — an idea that became a reality in 1984, when Cirque du Soleil performed at a Quebec City festival thanks to a one-time public-art grant.

“No one knew at that time it was going to go on and on and on,” Ruest says.

But it did, and the rest is history. Blending acrobatics, dance, original music and theatre, Cirque du Soleil has established itself as a ground-breaking entertainment phenomenon, delighting audiences around the world with its one-of-a-kind shows. Nowadays the company gets around 100 dossiers a week from performers eager to join its roster of over 600 artists.

Ruest no longer performs with Cirque, although she says she keeps her stilts right beside her desk in Montreal and jokes that she owns five-inch stilettos. Her time is now spent casting new performers and helping the creation team actualize its unique vision.

Delirium, described on the Cirque website (www.cirquedusoleil.com) as “a state-of-the-art mix of music, dance, theatre and multimedia,” marks a departure from the familiar style of previous Cirque du Soleil productions.

To Ruest, that’s a good thing, and she’s not concerned about backlash from audiences who have come to expect “classic” Cirque du Soleil acrobatics at every performance.

“We want to provoke. We want to innovate — to create new expectations,” she says. “I hate the word ‘classic.’”

Rest assured, Delirium promises to be anything but. Forty-five artists from 20 countries will be preforming on a huge two-sided stage that bisects the audience, and fans will still get to marvel at Cirque trademarks such as aerial stunts, contortionists, balance acts and, of course, a stilt-walker.

“I’m working on it, so I had to have a stilter,” Ruest says with a smile. “And he’s so, so good.”

The show also features an air balloon — a giant “planet drum” which serves as both a dance platform and a percussive surface — an 80-foot volcanic dress costume, and 540 square feet of projection space. That’s the equivalent of four IMAX screens.

But really, it’s all about the music this time.

Honest.

Created and directed by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, Delirium showcases 20 songs chosen from 16 past Cirque du Soleil productions and remixed by Francis Collard.

Singers, musicians and percussionists take centre stage in Delirium, whether they’re flying through the air or standing under a single spotlight while performing a solo piece.

“The mix of it was a challenge for the directors because, yes, it’s a music show but also it’s an image show, and it’s a performing show as well,” Ruest says.

However, the use of older material doesn’t mean Winnipeggers will be watching a greatest-hits presentation. Songs were chosen for their beat and emotional feel, at which point lyrics were written — another first in Cirque’s 22-year history. Ruest says the words help tell a story, and she describes the finished product “a show about humanity.”

“It’s not creatures from another imaginative universe... It speaks about emotion and relationships with others and being alone or being together,” she says.

Multimedia plays a significant role in Delirium, and Ruest says Lemieux in particular is renowned for his ability to incorporate new technologies into traditional dance and theatre.

“Arriving at Cirque... he was like a little boy playing with new toys,” she says. “What he brought in terms of the imagery is fantastic, phenomenal.”

Delirium uses manipulated live images, colours and textures, and graphically altered film footage. At some points images will be projected directly onto the audience, enveloping spectators in the show’s visual landscape while creating a human backdrop to the onstage action.

A Cirque show is always hard to describe, but if you’re still confused about what to expect from Delirium, look the word up in the dictionary — you’ll find it’s a state of mind involving hallucination, frenzied excitement and ecstasy.

Enthusiastically nodding her head, Ruest says the show encapsulates all of those things.

“It’s not the circus show (you’ve) seen on TV. Be ready to experience something different,” she says.

Of course. This is, after all, Cirque du Soleil.