Rain
Cirque Eloize
Wales Millennium Centre
By Mike Smith
I never understood those stories of people running off to join the circus to live in a caravan and endlessly put up and take down a big tent.
But having experienced Cirque Eloize’s Rain I now want to grab everyone I know and drag them to that rather splendid big top that is Wales Millennium Centre.
This is a show that has to be experienced. Yes, on one level it can be enjoyed for being visually stunning, marvelous acrobatics and plenty of humour. I sat in front of a couple of nine year olds who were transfixed by the whole evening and laughed with joyful abandon at the acrobatic gags that abound.
But what makes Rain special is the way the show works on an emotional level, creating atmospheres, playing on shared associations (rain, letters, loss, yearning) and all flavoured with lashings of Quebecoise charm.
This is not circus as I knew it as a child sitting on hard benches in chilly big tops stifling yawns at the embarrassingly naff clowns, humiliated animals and plate spinners. Rather Rain – Comme une pluie dans tes yeux - is an exquisitely crafted show with its theme of childhood and memories played out by characters between breathtaking acrobatic acts and comical interludes.
It could become a self-obsessed sentimental Gallic schmaltz were it not for the subtly of the handling, the sheer exuberance of the ensemble and genuine humour that slices through any sentimentality.
Director Daniele Finzi Pasca has set his story in a theatre/ circus where his troupe is preparing for a show. The men are attired in period strong-man style one-piece bathing costumes or trunks while the women are generally attired in clinging slips, stockings and boots.
All the while Jocelyn Bigras on piano mesmerizes even when his instrument is the prop for acrobatic antics and jolly japes, when it is spun around and he is hoisted into the air.
Never dominating the show, the music is a constant linking motif, be it some funky jazz, soulful ballad or even, yes, an accordion. Similarly, the lighting is gorgeously effective in using sheer curtains through which action can be seen, or not seen, illuminating the players and creating evocative effects.
It took just a few moments to acclimatize to the show which, despite the graceful trapeze acts and high flying leaps and vaults, is an intimate show that heavily relies on the audience’s absorption into the atmosphere.
You have to really concentrate to hear Stephane Gentilini’s sensuous mumbles and fall under his spell as the story – basic and vague as it is – unfolds. The major set pieces are spectacular and the gasps, sighs and expressions of delight that came from the audience were richly deserved. But equally some of the individual cameo performances at front of stage to the audience were as compelling and delightful.
Some of the most remarkable acts involve something as simple as a large red hoop in which a player spins and twists, defying any laws of gravity that I am supposed to know. Five performers gracefully glide, dance and then plummet down lengths of sheer material.
Using just their bodies, and okay they are not just any bodies, they contort to create whimsical animals. Nadine Louis bends and squeezes into a suitcase. The men balance on one another in ways I would have thought impossible and in true showman style exceed your expectation over and over again.
When the rain finally comes – you know it does so I am not spoiling it for you – the results are both beautiful and liberating. A player first skims a foot through the water as she swings on a hoop and this builds up until the whole ensemble playfully celebrates in the downpour, ultimately body surfing across the stage.
Did I also say it is a remarkably, well, sexy show? Not in a way that you need cover the kids or granny’s eyes – far from it they will love every minute. Rather, it is a sensual and possibly spiritual experience and celebration of the beauty – and amazing abilities - of the physical body.
And it is all wonderfully good fun. I laughed, gasped, sighed, squirmed and cheered along. It really is time to run off to the circus.
Rain is at Wales Millennium Centre until January 8, 2005
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