Cirque du Soleil

Kaliedoscope girl took me to see Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo".

I wasn't too keen on going. I'd seen little tv clips about the cirque over the years and wasn't that charmed. But she's seen them perform before and loves them. I guess they come to Portland every few years. She was really wanting to take me to see them.

This performance, called "Corteo" (French for "cortege" - a funeral prossesion), was about a clown who dreamed he died and all his circus friends came to say good bye. His angels come through the air to take him, but he asks to stay a few moments longer. Then scenes of his life go before him - from his memories of his grandmother's bed, which turns into an amazing tumbling and acrobatic act performed on two huge beds...to being introduced to the circus, with juggling and trapeze and tightrope walkers, giants and little people...to falling in love and growing old clowning...to behind the scene fights and jealousies...and ending when the angels come to take him home. His fellow performers wave goodbye as he rides a bycicle across the sky.

From the moment it started, I knew it would be wonderful! I don't even know how to tell you what it was like. It was all just so amazing. The audience was on both sides of the stage and the stage curtain was a huge wispy fabric with ethereal paintings on it. We had 2nd row seats, and from the time we sat down, memories of going to the circus with my father flooded back to me. It was like being a wide-eyed child again.

The clown was my ideal of a clown, and all the performers connected with the audience so you felt like part of them. There were many acts, but all tied together, and often someone would zip across the stage - like one person that just summersaulted so fast across the stage from left to right that you never even saw their face sort of like dream sequences.

My favorite part: During one act, seemingly unrelated to the act, a clown crosses the stage high above on a tightwire - he's dressed in a white frilly clown suit and white face, holding an umbrella, and taking one step at a time, slowly across the stage - upside down! It seems so bizzare and natural at the same time. Kaleidoscope girl said her favorite act was a clown that brought out a ladder to center stage and tries to climb it. The ladder isn't leaning on anything so it keeps tipping and flipping. But he does it! He climbs up and over and down really fast, keeping his balance and being so delightful.

One more favorite part: The clown is playing with a little clown girl who is suspended from six huge blue balloons. He can hold her in his hands. It looks like she is probably suspened from the ceiling by wires until he tosses her out into the audience, where she lites on peoples' hands like a butterfly until they toss her back to the clown.