Cirque du Soleil: Corteo

Cirque du Soleil’s surreal 2005 combination of a Baroque painting, a carnival and the sensation of your life flashing before your eyes, Corteo was resurrected this year for an international arena tour, after a successful 10-year run of its Big Top version.

Corteo — written and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca — is sometimes more inscrutable than one might desire from an evening of contemporary circus, favouring conceptual images over a coherent storyline. Sometimes those are enough on their own — it’s hard to forget a clown dressed all in white, carrying a candelabra, walking upside down across the top of the Scotiabank Arena, or a procession of empty shoes travelling across the stage independently — but dreams are difficult to remember for a reason. Without story, it’s harder to get a firm grip on the show and circus of all things has taught us how important a firm grip is.

Corteo acts out the dream of a clown named Mauro, who imagines witnessing his own funeral surrounded by a troupe of his fellow circus performers, consisting of a crew of more traditional figures from the big top: a ringleader with an impressive talent for whistling, jugglers, a giant, acrobats and his family of clowns.

Angels are a new addition to Mauro’s acquaintances, but as they welcome him to their suspended world above the action below, he finds truly heartwarming scenes: riding a bike in the sky, looking down from his floating bed, learning how to use his new wings by shaking his body comically. Of all the clowning moments in this production, Mauro’s moments of dreamlike eccentricity are the most memorable; others, like a side trip to Scotland for a round of golf, feel like a literal and thematic departure.

Story and circus find their best pairing in a trampoline act that places the elastic material in the form of two vintage beds and the performers in the roles of unruly children resisting their bedtime. The joy of the performers and characters is infectious, especially coming up after the opening chandelier act (where Mauro’s former lovers hang over his bed, one of several awkward instances that place women as the objects of male desire).

[Corteo, which means cortege in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown. The show brings together the passion of the actor with the grace and power of the acrobat to plunge the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.]