Just a few weeks away from the grand premiere, Cirque du Soleil artists are busy finalizing the final details of its latest offering, Echo, which will finally be presented this spring after a three-year wait.
The initial version of the show, called Under the same sky, was to be presented in 2020, but the pandemic wanted it otherwise, recalls Chantal Tremblay, creative director, during an open day for the media which revealed the bowels of Cirque .
This forced three-year break allowed the team behind the show to review the entire work, in the boxes of Cirque since 2017.
In doing so, almost half of the show designed by Es Devlin has been reworked, notably with the arrival of a new director, Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar.
As Ethiopian acrobats soar and soar in the background, the director readily admits that the pandemic has caused the design team to revise, if not reinforce, the message of the show. A message which must be current today, but which will still be relevant in ten years, he specifies.
“For two years, we have been divided, recalls Mr. Mukhtar, himself a former circus artist. We wanted to create a show around collaboration, connection, talking about the desire to build a world in which we want to live, with a particular emphasis on young people. »
Pushing the limits of his art
Whether they work with their voice, their bodies, fabric or a paintbrush, all the Cirque du Soleil artists we met on Tuesday are deeply convinced that they are pushing the limits of their art thanks to Echo.
Already they could pass for sisters, Charlotte O’Sullivan and Penelope Scheidler will experience symbiosis and symmetry in a high-flying number which, even if they cannot reveal the details, is intended to be quite innovative.
Indeed, the two professional acrobats, specialized in aerial numbers, will be suspended from each other’s manes or by their teeth. “It has rarely been seen in pairs, underlines Mme O’Sullivan. It adds another dimension to this discipline. »
Upstairs, musicians and singers refine the hymns that will rock the acrobats. An impromptu performance for the journalists who came to meet them bears witness to the harmony that unites this small group which rehearses twice a day for three hours.
Thierry Angers, composers assistant, music consultant and musical arrangements, speaks of a “rather unique sound”, if not never heard. “It’s a mix of pop and classical, but it’s intertwined in a way that I haven’t seen often,” he says. This is mainly thanks to the particularity of the voices; the way they are used is more like a musical instrument. »
A little further on, Julio Cesar Da Silveira is busy making up Louana Seclet, who lends her features to the show’s protagonist, Future. A test filmed and documented on paper to allow the artist to reproduce this look herself without too much difficulty during the tour.
The last stage of the visit takes place at the sewing workshop. At the end of the costume store, where colors and memories abound, is the design and fitting room. This is where the costumes are born that will give character to the characters.
” To get there [au produit final]it takes a lot of testing, trial and error,” says Tania Camiré, assistant to the costume designer.
She indicates that the team must also create its own materials to achieve the desired result, that is to say to embody the designer’s vision while allowing the fluidity of the movement of the acrobats.
While Cirque du Soleil has accustomed us to colorful costumes rich in detail, Echo is more focused on sobriety, says Ms.me Camire.
“The costumes in Echo are different from most of the shows we have at Cirque. Usually, there are a lot of details in our costumes, but this is something very refined. We have costumes that are all white, to which we add a “punched” color and a crumpled effect, explains the assistant. We are not in the bling bling: we are completely elsewhere. »
First Montreal, then the world
Nearly 50 multidisciplinary artists, from more than twenty countries around the world, will thus put their talents at the service of Echo, whose narrative framework revolves around the power of oneself over one’s environment.
In two weeks, the large-scale show will migrate to the marquee of the Old Port of Montreal to undertake a series of performances that will take place from April 20 to August 20, after which the troupe, which numbers 120 people, will begin an international tour.
This dispatch was produced with financial assistance from the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for News.