For anyone who has longed to run away and join the circus as a clown, Cirque du Soleil’s “Corteo” is a dream come true. In one of their most thematically cohesive productions, the wizards of Montreal have imagined a multimedia extravaganza as a clown’s dream of his own funeral.
The production is a landscape of tableaux, acts, and general mayhem that segues effortlessly from a rococo feast of angels, chandeliers, and dirges to Olympian acrobatics to inspired clowning in the European tradition.
Beginning with the prologue – where a couple of clowns carrying a coffin stumble and lose the body, then try to replace it with an audience member, the fun and awe never stop.
We are called together by the ringmaster, who lays out the ground rules and ushers in a procession of the artists in their most exotic costumes, including a giant and midgets, the trapeze and vault artists, the fearless jugglers, and, in the Cirque tradition, an assortment of other oddball characters.
When the chandeliers turn into swings, the cortege takes another turn, and we begin to realize that this story’s conceit brings with it a clown’s-eye view of the world, in all its poignant glory and absurdities.
Many scenes stand out, but everyone is sure to be talking about the delightful “Helium Dance,” where The Clowness, miniature Valentyna Pahlevanyan, is held aloft by fanciful balloons in just the right balance of float and sink, so that she is propelled by the flick of a wrist from The White Clown out over the seats. The audience joy that followed harkened back to a similar thrill last seen here in “Slava’s Snow Show.”
Then there are the nerve-racking moments: Anastasia Bykovskaya’s remarkable journey up a high wire tightrope set at about 40 degrees; muscular human trapezes flinging flyweights across the sky; and catapulting acrobats flipping and twisting midair before returning to the teeterboard.
Unexpected exhibitions abound, including the ringmaster’s hidden whistling talent that goes head-to-head matching classical chops with a concert violinist in a cutting contest, children’s beds turned into skyrocketing trampolines, and the man who climbs a ladder into thin air.
Though more tame in the X-Game-type displays than other Cirque spectaculars, “Corteo” surpasses thematically, bringing a poignancy to the clown’s life, and lives up to the age-old billing as a show for young and old alike.
“Corteo” runs through Aug. 5 on the Pepsi Center grounds; for information call 800-450-1480 or visit
