Wild, witty, wet and altogether winning.

Those words sum up "Rain," the new Cirque Éloize show that is ending the season at the New Victory Theater with a figurative and literal splash. Performing through July 10, this Quebec-based troupe, which opened the New Victory in December 1995, combines high circus arts and ingratiating self-mockery with nostalgic costumes, eclectic music and song, evocative lighting and creative choreography. It's two hours of fun calculated to please children and adults alike.

Highlights abound in this entertainment, written and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca and featuring tumbling,juggling, acrobatics, contortions and feats of strength, as well as exhibitions of daring on trapeze, flexible balance bar, teeterboard and lofty ribbons of flowing fabric and inside a colorful hoop.

From start to finish, Cirque Éloize buoys its admirably skilled and serious attainments on cushions of humor, beginning with a prologue that introduces the show's sense of longing for a past of innocent joys, like soaking in a summer rain, and proceeds to lighten the message by correcting the heavy French accent of the narrator.

Women in bloomers and mustachioed men in two-piece swimsuits draw the audience into the past, where the ensemble exhibits its skills. Individuals can be singled out: Stéphane Gentilini, the good-humored narrator and juggler; Nadine Louis, the contortionist who seems to lack a spine; Jacek Wyskup and Bartlomiej Pankau, whose strong-man act is a feat of excruciating power and grace that takes away the breath and ends by releasing it in cheers.

But make no mistake. Cirque Éloize is an ensemble, and "Rain" displays expertise that expends from behind the scenes to the show-ending downpour that sends the cast rollicking and sliding across the stage in showers of water.

"Rain" is, in a word, refreshing.