Cirque du Soleil paid a vibrant tribute to Guy Lafleur as part of its summer series inaugurated at the Cogeco amphitheater in Trois-Rivières on Wednesday evening. An acrobatic piece that retraces the great moments in the career of the famous number 10.
With its organist perched on a platform, these immense illuminated hockey sticks placed on either side of the stage, the appearance of flowerbeds and a scoreboard suspended from the ceiling, we would have thought we were in the old Forum de Montréal.
The show started with the jingles of hockey night, performed on the organ. Circus performers entering the stage with inline skates.
PHOTO OLIVIER CROTEAU, THE NEWSLETTER
The highlights of Guy Lafleur’s career are revealed through the eyes of a little boy who plays hockey.
When director Fernand Rainville said he wanted to recreate “the atmosphere of a match and the energy of the game”, he wasn’t kidding. That’s exactly what Guy! Guy! Guy! fact, while titillating the feeling of nostalgia of the spectators who followed the matches of the Canadian at the time when they won…
For a little over 90 minutes, Cirque retraced the great moments of Guy Lafleur’s career, with several audio and video extracts in support, which notably allowed us to review several very beautiful goals from the blond demon. Quotes from relatives are also projected on a screen.
The performances of the circus artists echo those of the famous hockey player, but Lafleur remains THE star of the show. It’s as if they had taken care not to eclipse the prowess of our Guy. Apart from two or three numbers, all the attention is on The Flower.
It is through the eyes of a little boy who plays hockey himself that we discover — or rediscover — the man and the hockey player from Thurso.
Frankly, there was a huge risk in the design of this tribute show. Risk of sycophancy and overflow of good feelings towards one of our sports idols. There is also a risk of falling into the little boy who dreams of being like his idol… However, the creative team manages to avoid these two pitfalls.
First of all, the boy’s presence is rather discreet, and serves as a pretext for discovering aspects of Lafleur’s life – which the youngest do not know. And then even if there are a lot of good feelings towards the star player, it’s done with taste and even at times with humor.