Kooza
Directed and written
by David Shiner
Choreographed by Clarence Ford
Performed by Cirque du Soleil
Until June 24 at the Old Port in Old Montreal (514-790-1245 or )
To suggest that a Cirque du Soleil show is a return to form sounds somewhat strange. This is, after all, the troupe that has rewritten the rules of the traditional circus, warped collective audience expectations of what circus performance can be and set a new standard for the form. The Cirque has managed to take the finest elements of the circus and combine them with the uncircus - its shows have created a strange sense of watching a form that's being celebrated and unravelled at once.
The Cirque has become legendary, morphing from a small street troupe to lord over Vegas as the billion-dollar-plus jewel in the crown of Quebec Inc. The crowd at Thursday night's world premiere of their latest show, Kooza, was testimony to the Cirque's draw: Premier Jean Charest, Mayor Gérald Tremblay, Justin Trudeau and Oscar-winning filmmaking team Denys Arcand and Denise Robert, among others, were in attendance.
And there was tension in the air beyond whether or not someone was going to fall off the high wire. The Cirque has been in a time of transition of late, leading to experiments in the form. Last year's new forays included the Beatles collaboration and Delirium, a show that yanked the troupe out of the tent and put them in a setting more associated with modern dance. Was this show going to continue the effort to break new ground or offer more traditional Cirque thrills?
The writer and director of Kooza, veteran clown and actor David Shiner, appears to be intent upon taking the Cirque back to its roots. The show's title is derived from the Sanskrit word " koza," which roughly translates as box, chest or treasure. Here is the one-note hook needed for a Cirque narrative: Boy discovers box, out of which pops any and all manner of circus performers. Shiner has stated that Kooza "is about human connection and the world of duality, good and bad."
Thankfully, Shiner's statements are beside the point. People don't flock to the Cirque to philosophically ponder the difference between good and bad; their shows have largely been about contortion over concept. And with Kooza, Shiner and the incredibly talented group of Cirque performers concocted a crowd-pleaser. (After Montreal, the show tours to several North American cities.)
Shiner has his ensemble go through a series of what ostensibly sound like circus clichés: a high-wire act involving bicycles, clowns being chased by cops, a cabaret-style dance sequence. But here's where the Cirque leaves other troupes in the dust: Nothing about the performances was ordinary. Each one was strangely pleasing, creatively pushing the limits of the form in its own way. The high-wire act was combined with a sword fight; a two-man Ferris wheel became a spot where the men could jump rope; and the cabaret dance included a voodoo motif, with the dancers sporting skeleton-pattern body suits.
Simply put, Kooza is ridiculously, deliriously entertaining. It is exhilarating to watch -- sheer, unapologetic spectacle that creates the sense that you are freebasing pure fun. Shiner, choreographer Clarence Ford and designers Stéphane Roy and Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt deserve high praise for their superb work, but it is the sense of awe and wonder around the performers that will leave audiences breathless. Their discipline is nothing short of astonishing; they are so good at what they do that it often appears flat-out weird, defying our expectations around the laws of gravity, not to mention what we think of as normal posture.
With several well-earned standing ovations by night's end, the Cirque's return to form had paid off. Though there's nothing simple about the troupe's formula, Kooza is just plain brilliant.
Kooza plays Quebec City, July 5-29 and Toronto, Aug. 9-Sept. 2.