CIRQUE ÉLOIZE: RAIN
ABC Brisbane, July 27, 2006With Level Three water restrictions currently in place and talk already of Level Four, it’s been a while since Brisbane residents have experienced a really decent, liberating downpour. For this reason, the spectacular and joyful finale of Cirque Eloize’s circus theatre, Rain was perhaps especially cathartic for the opening night audience at the Brisbane theatre. Indeed, in this production, it does in fact rain. Not just a few spits, mind you – in the final scene, drops of water showered down as if by magic onto a stage that had been transformed into a giant puddle in which the performers splashed and slid. Ah, the wonders of modern theatre!
This production is worth seeing for the phenomenon of its watery finale alone, but there is much more to Rain than staging wizardry. The standing ovation that it received last night was testament to incredible performers who managed to inspire a sense of childlike delight in their audience. Cirque Éloize is a French-Canadian company that traverses the divide between theatre and circus. The performers in Rain combine impressive technical prowess in circus acts such as juggling, contortion, tumbling and trapeze, with complete fluency in theatrical nuances for a result that is both whimsical and moving.
As with most circus, the plot is extremely thin as the performers move from routine to routine on the pretext of rehearsing a circus show. As acts are “rehearsed”, the performers bicker, joke and flirt – with each other and the audience. This interaction is the glue that holds this show together and it works surprisingly well. I didn’t notice the time passing at all in a production that was over two hours long.
These performers have amazing presence and a profound awareness of the body as a tool to emote. There seem to be something deeper than the desire to entertain in the way that they tackled each circus act. Standout moments were the duo acrobatic routines – the apparent effortlessness with which performers sustained amazingly difficult bodily configurations had me mesmerized.
Music plays a big role in this production. Both a recorded soundtrack and a live pianist accompany the routines and the compositions are perfectly suited to the action on stage and add much to the production. The piano accompaniments are particularly wonderful. If being able to fit inside a small suitcase and do aerial somersaults off a tiny beam wasn’t enough, the performers all proved to be enthusiastic musicians as well. They sing, they play instruments, they dance… what can’t they do?
One thing they couldn’t do last night was transfer all that wonderful rain pounding down upon the stage to the gardens of Brisbane and to our dams. But the amazing artistry of Cirque Éloize’s production had me almost believing that the performers could even manage that magic.