Category Archives: Circus

Publicité Sauvage 25½ 6/15, 7/15, and 8/15

Howdy!

Initially back at the beginning of the year when Publicité Sauvage started celebrating their silver anniversary I was quite excited. I figured that a year long celebration involving 15 different exhibits at a variety of different venues could be an amazing thing. Unfortunately my idea and those of Publicité Sauvage haven’t quite jibed. Where I was thinking some far reaching history of events in Montreal, rigorously documented and thematically linked, offering accessible but relevant exhibits than were engaging and entertaining. They were thinking something more along the lines of let’s try to hang as many old posters as we have in as many different places around the city as possible, and while we’re at it, documentation, visibility and coherence be damned.

What has been offered has been a hastily and shoddily thrown together series of exhibits that seem more like an afterthought to the book/catalogue (which itself is more like a hagiography than a critical analysis). None the less, any celebration of a past which is just far enough away that I can only view it through a serious haze is always welcome. Back at the start, I was all full of ideas about how I was going to write a gazillion and a half words on each and every show. I was going to do deep research to not only find out who designed each poster, but where it was printed, what kind of paper and then find reviews and articles on line that discussed the events on the poster. Yeah, right. That and $2 will get me a cup of coffee. As it turned out, I got to see four of the first five exhibits. (If you’re interested, you can read what I wrote about 1/15, 2/15 and 3/15 here and what I wrote about 5/15 here.)

So, since my sights have been lowered, I’m combining exhibits 6/15, 7/15, and 8/15 into one review here and now, and I reserve the right to change my mind again and again and again for any and all of the exhibits yet to come. Exhibit 6/15 was at city hall and involved a bunch of posters loosely grouped together as large events that happened in Montreal.

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.

Exhibit 7/15 was at the Monument National and involved (for the most part) things that had happened in theatres.

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National

Exhibit 8/15 was way the heck out in the middle of buttfuck nowhere (aka Tohu) and consisted of some circus posters, and in passing was when and where I realized what was being shown on the walls, what was being written up in the book/catalogue, what was going to written up in the grant report and what was going to be remembered by people who saw any of the exhibits were four completely, utterly and entirely different things unrelated to each other like me, Buddha, Mama Cass Elliot and Fireball Roberts (go look them up on Wikipedia, I’ll wait)

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu

I don’t know who is responsible, but I can only guess that it is Marc H. Choko who is listed as curator all over the place. But he shows a remarkable lack of vision and creativity given the milieu he has chosen to immerse himself in. Pinning up old posters to office cubicle dividers, no matter how good or great awesome the posters are is just doing them a disservice. No they do not need to be framed, but the posters need to be treated with some respect. I would venture a guess that the book/catalogue will/has sold in the low four figures ($40 isn’t cheap, I need to thank Emmanuel Galland, yes that Emmanuel Galland for my copy, he was/is the publicist for the Publicité Sauvage 25½). However I would venture another guess that upwards 1 million people will see the individual exhibits, counting geeks like me seven different times for the seven different exhibits I’ve seen one time each. How many people walk through City Hall every day? 2,000? The exhibit was up there for two weeks. If my guess is right that means 30,000 people saw it. There are 14 other exhibits in certain cases, places that have even higher traffic for a longer period of time (number 9/15 is going to be at Place des Arts for a full month).

As I have seen them so far, the exhibits have served as a kind of variation on the game Concentration, or if you prefer, how many of the events shown can you remember? But then the minute I turned away from the exhibit, I forgot what posters were there. Instead of just presenting nine Cirque du Soleil posters with a minimum of information

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu

how difficult would it have been to spend a couple of bucks at a printshop on some plastic lettering that was then stuck on the wall explaining which poster was the very first Cirque du Soleil poster that Publicité Sauvage handled. Or some bafflegab and goobledygook as to why they don’t have a complete collection of posters from the 30 productions the Cirque du Soleil has done to date. Or heck a headshot of the person who drew the first poster along with their name in something just a little bit larger than 10 point type.

It’s almost as if M. Choko insisted that he follow the guidelines for the actual poster hangers that Publicité Sauvage hires. But without the added benefit of having multiple copies to hang.

Then if I really let loose, I honestly don’t think that an exhibit at the Centre d’Histoire de Montreal in 1995 counts as a “événements marquants de Montréal” (and it probably wouldn’t hurt either if they figured out some way to stop the posters from gapping while being exhibited, but I might be nitpicking here…)

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall

Nor do I think a poster for an album belongs in a collection of theatre posters

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National

And then for the biggest WTF, did Publicité Sauvage somehow build a Latvian division after they couldn’t even figure out Toronto to save their life

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu

Or did they, after the fact discover that there was way more wall space at Tohu than posters that they had mounted? I dunno, but as you can tell by the awesome amount of publicity that M. Galland has been able to accrue since January the entire city has been held enthralled by multiple exhibits of self-serving publicity that Publicité Sauvage has been able to garner – end sarcasm now.

I’ll wait until later in the year to even bring up to various conflicts of interest. And my expectations for 9/15 through 15/15 have been knocked lower than any sub basement you’ve ever visited in your life. I’m going to do my best to see the remaining shows, but while I’m fairly convinced that I am the only person in the entire universe who isn’t paid by Publicité Sauvage who has seen 87.5% of the shows so far, it ain’t like I’ve seen them all, and as a consequence trying to keep up to some unattainable level and promising to see every last one, is just a little bit beyond me now. Hopefully M. Choko is capabloe of learning from past mistakes and the stuff that he shows in the fall/winter season lives up to my initial expectations.

But I’m not holding my breath… Nor would I suggest you do either.

Petit Mal by Racehorse Company

Howdy!

I’m not certain how best to describe Petit Mal by Racehorse Company. I think my friend Ken does a better job in three words than I will ever be able to do in 3,000 words.

Fortunately for me, his lacks a certain nuance, and does nothing to explain what or how they do, what they do. They being Rauli Kosonen, Kalle Lehto and Petri Tuominen, who I assume are all from Finland, as Racehorse Company is based there. But given my familiarity with Nordic names, for all I know they all could be from Greenland or someplace equally distant. But thankfully Nordic Names exists, and it is possible to verify that in fact their names are all Finnish. Ultimately though where they are from really doesn’t matter, from seeing what they do, for all I know they could have come from Jupiter or Timbuktoo or Rosemont and the performance would have still been utterly amazing and wonderful.

But enough hyperbole, what exactly happened that would cause me (and others) to foam at the mouth so much? In a nutshell, they bounced. You know those exercise balls?

An exercise ball
An exercise ball

Instead of using it to exercise, imagine it as a natural extension of your body. Kind of like une grosse bedaine, one of those magnificent beer bellies that is as wide as it is tall, or in other words a perfect sphere, and completely bounceable. Then use that bedaine to bounce all over the stage. After bouncing around for awhile imagine it more as a treadmill. ie when you go one way, it goes the other, but somehow everyone and everything stays in the same place. Then start to do back-flips and somersaults on it while bouncing. Then do more, higher and faster. Then wash rinse and repeat, often.

But Mr. Kosonen, Mr. Lehto and Mr. Tuominen don’t limit themselves to only using exercise balls. They also use old tires, pink feathers (lots and lots of pink feathers) a bunch of trampolines, a leaf blower and some other objects to great effect. It’s kind of like being back in grade two, and being given a bunch of crayons and paper by your teacher and told to make something. So you dutifully draw a picture that your mom still adores to this day. But then you turn to your left and you discover that your classmate has not only taken some of the crayons and used then to make an encaustic painting, but has also used the left over crayons to form some kind of artistically sculptural easel to support and properly display the painting. Or in short such a completely and thoroughly over the top and amazing exhibition of pure creativity that you kind of want to either become BFF or decide that it isn’t worth even trying to compete and decide right then and there to become a bookkeeper. Realizing that no matter how hard you try, your creative impulses will never even approach your classmate’s.

As an example, Mr. Kosonen, Mr. Lehto and Mr. Tuominen placed one old tire perpendicularly in a second tire that was lying sideways on the stage. They then put a 2 x 4 through the tire that was upright and turned it into a Korean Plank

I saw Petit Mal by Racehorse Company last week, over the weekend I thought long and hard about becoming a bookkeeper. Since I ultimately decided against it, maybe this means I get to be BFF with Mr. Kosonen, Mr. Lehto and Mr. Tuominen, I dunno, but whatever happens, I’ll let you know.

One of the ongoing themes throughout the performance is Bob Dylan’s song Highlands. It gets played at least three times, if not more. After looking up way too much information about it on Wikipedia and elsewhere on the internet, I’d love to be able to tell you that there were half-a-dozen connections, but after searching high and low for more than 90 minutes, the only thing I can make as a connection is the combination of Daniel Lanois’ guitar, Jim Dickinson’s organ and Mr. Dylan’s voice give a very swamp-like air to the proceedings. Which given the set design, is completely appropriate. While it works, and it works well, I’d hope that the fine folk who administrate at Racehorse Company are also familiar with the music of Ry Cooder, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Tony Joe White.

Another thing that they did that made the show so much better was how they handled the anticipatory bits. In every circus I’ve ever seen there are those parts which are more involved in the set up, getting things organized, making sure everything is safe, etc. Anticipation builds in the audience, and if the act is great then everyone is happy. But generally, more often than I would care to remember expectations are not met. Mr. Kosonen, Mr. Lehto and Mr. Tuominen were so “out there” that it for the most part became impossible to figure out what they were going to do next. There was no sense of “ok, here comes the trapeze.” It was more like “how are they going to incorporate that six foot inflatable shark into the show, and what the heck are they going to do with it?”

They’re means and method of thinking might be best shown when they brought out the leaf blower, ostensibly to create a cloud of pink feathers. But for whatever reasons (I think it had to do with a blown fuse) the blower wasn’t blowing, so without missing a beat, they pulled out a second leaf blower, and then when that one didn’t work (why I thought it was a blown fuse) they resorted to sweeping and kicking the feathers with their feet without missing a beat. Who else would not only come from Finland with two leaf blowers for a 2 minute segment, but then also have practiced what to do in case both leaf blowers failed?

Then before I forget, I should mention that they also manage to incorporate Scrooge McDuck

Dudley Do-Right

A Horse costume and some outfits that I couldn’t figure out if they were supposed to be like Prince or like Elvis.

But ultimately, how they dressed up really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they came out with an insane amount of creativity, that enabled them to do some awesome things with a minimum of props, all the while doing things that while on the surface appeared as if I could do them with my eyes closed, in fact were insanely hard and probably required decades of practice. In short, next time Racehorse Company shows up in your town, run, don’t walk to the box office and make sure that you don’t miss their show.

Underman by Cirkus Cirkör

Howdy!

Last week I got to see Underman by Cirkus Cirkör at the Theatre National. If you want the short version, it’s quite good. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) if you want to see it now, you’re going to have to make your way to Europe, as the boys have returned home and are performing in a bunch of cities in Sweden and Düsseldorf for the rest of the summer. The basic schtick of Underman is three single guys who happen to be circus performers and recently single get together in order to do their own performance without any Y-chromosome challenged people.

As they are fond of pointing out, in the circus very frequently there are two person gymnastics where a Y-chromosome challenged person is lifted, held and supported by a guy. That guy is known as an Underman. In poking around the internet, I also discovered that Underman was was also a term from Nazi Germany used to describe all the people they didn’t like and thought were beneath them. When they’re in Düsseldorf are they going to change the title? Or has sufficient time passed? Either way, Mattias Andersson, Peter Åberg and Matias Salmenaho are anything but inferior.

For the most part there are two things which form the foundation of the performance. Kettlebells and monologues. I wasn’t able to see whether they used 12kg, 16kg or 24 kg kettlebells, but would guess that the 16kg versions were more than sufficient. At various points during the show all three of them did (both solo and together) some kind of act that wasn’t juggling because each of them only controlled one kettlebell and they didn’t transfer the kettlebells between them but for all intents and purposes looked like juggling one item.

The second unifying thing was that each of the performers did a monologue that kind of explained their situation, ie why and how they became to be single. While I’m certain there was a bunch of stuff borrowed from their real lives, this was the one circus show I saw where there were really and truly characters, character development and it wouldn’t be a stretch to pull a fancy two-bit word out of my hat and call them thespians.

In between and around all of those were some, what I call, “man-lifts” where one guy picks up another guy (or two) and uses him (or them) as props which then naturally lead to a “man tosses”. Some straw balancing, both with and without Rubic’s Cube solving. Some serious juggling (six clubs behind the back!) And something in a large and heavy hoop that you I thought could only be done by tiny adolescent women.

If I’m going to get nit-picky and find something to complain about it would have to be the seats. For some reason or another we were seated up in the balcony of the Theatre National (when given free tickets, I find that it’s really tough to throw a tantrum in public and insist on 8th row center on the floor, so I kind of politely say thank you and don’t worry about it too too much) and no matter which way I leaned, forward, backward, left or right it was absolutely impossible to see the whole stage from where I was sitting. But then about halfway through the show Mr Andersson, Mr. Åberg and Mr. Salmenaho addressed the audience and suggested (actually insisted) that everyone introduce themselves to the strangers sitting next to them and then go and switch seats with someone else.

So we were able to find better seats, on the center aisle, if I remember correctly one row closer, and my view was still blocked. Worse still in these new and improved seats, my companion was forced to lean as far away from me as possible in order to see the show, so instead of the two of us looking like an “A” if viewed from in front or behind as we leaned together to see what was happening on the stage, we looked like a “V” and it occurred to me that she might have well as come with the guy sitting on the other side as opposed to me (I unfortunately was on the aisle, if you remember, so it wasn’t like I could pretend I had come with someone else…) So it wasn’t the seats we were given, I think it’s just the seats at Theatre National. It’s an old theater, and when it was built people were smaller. As Kurt Vonnegut would say, “so it goes.”

But that’s enough of a digression, let’s see if I can focus back on Underman. The thing that was so cool about it was that for something like the first time, I was able to feel empathy for the characters in a circus show who weren’t clowns. From that I’m almost prepared to go the mat about how Underman is more play-like (as in Tennessee Williams, not Lego) than anything I’ve ever seen. But then I just spent over an hour and half searching through the Cirkus Cirkör website looking for anything that would further my thesis, and struck out on every front. I seem to have some memory somewhere that I saw something mentioning a writer and other titles that are not normally associated with the circus, but I’m having a whale of a time finding it again, which probably means that I imagined it. Pity.

I should also make mention of the music, all of the performers play at least one instrument, and while on the surface this seems like a good thing, to my ear they were competent but not up to the caliber of the rest of the performance. They played Suspicious Minds

but there was something missing. At the time I felt it could have used an accordion solo, but now I’m not so certain. For the most part it was used as background, except for Suspicious Minds. Thinking out loud here, maybe incorporating more music into the performance, a la Suspicious Minds, or incorporating the instruments into the act (juggling six clubs while playing the accordion!).

Then after the show was over, we were invited to stick around for a performance by Andreas Tengblad (the one guy in the troupe who was a musician and not a circus performer) and Anna Ahnlund, which while not bad, suffered because there were only 30 people in the audience and no matter what they did, after Underman, it was going to be a let down. Next time, I would strongly urge them to perform before Underman as an opening act. It would be much more favorably received.

Prior to seeing Underman I had never really contemplated anything about Swedish Circuses. After seeing it, I’m definitely going to keep my eye on it, as if other circus companies from Sweden are half as good as Cirkus Cirkör then run, don’t walk to the box office next time you hear that their coming to town.

Les 7 doigts de la main, Séquence 8

Howdy!

Due to the generosity of a bunch of folk I was able to see Les 7 doigts de la main latest and greatest show, Séquence 8, not once, but twice. The first time at the opening last week and then a second time on Tuesday night. I’m going to have to try to make a point of seeing more performances twice – it is extremely helpful in trying to get a handle on what’s happening. As I have pointed out before, all too frequently, the show that I see at a première and the show I see at the end of the world tour are two completely and utterly different beasts. Being able to see a show a second time allows for a certain familiarity and comfort, I kind of know what’s going to happen next, instead of jotting notes furiously trying to just keep up with what’s happening on stage – in effect being the play-by-play announcer, it affords a certain perspective so that I can also take notes that are the equivalent of the color commentary as well. In short a more well-rounded perspective, which in the case of a review, really can’t hurt.

To begin with, the logistics; at the première (where I was told by someone who seemed reliable) that every last ticket was comped (my back of the envelope math placed it about 950 to 1,000 seats). I couldn’t quite get a hang of where I fit in the Montreal performing arts hierarchy, other than understanding I’m in the top 1,000, because on the downside, the seats were in the absolute last row, so if I had any insecurities, I would have been absolutely crushed by having to walk up all of those stairs. But on the positive side the seats were pretty much as close to the center as they could be, so not only were there other people who were also in the back row, but they could only see the show from an angle, or in the worst case from behind the performers. If I had tried to I could have tripped myself and fallen into the laps of Shana Carroll and Sebastien Soldevila the two non-performing folk who were most responsible to the show. Something called Mise en scene and direction artistique (basically directing and artistic direction in the Devil’s language). And while I’m at it, Ms. Carroll was wearing a particularly smashing outfit, one of those tuxedo tail-like suit coats from like the 1880s or a Fred Astaire film, unfortunately she was nowhere to be seen last Tuesday. For the life of me I can’t remember at all anything that Mr. Soldevila wore.

I don’t know if it was because we got to Tohu earlier last week than this week, or if there is a significant difference in the traffic on the 40 between Thursday nights and Tuesday nights, but before the show on Tuesday and again at quite points there was a very distinct low rumble that could be heard. On the Tuesday night performance it wasn’t there, and I don’t know why. But at the time I guessed that it was from the large and particularly busy elevated highway that runs right beside the theatre. But since I wasn’t able to hear it on the Tuesday performance, it might be something else entirely, I dunno. But no matter how nice, good and sweet circus stuff and circus performers are, I’m still not to certain I would want to be working that close to cars and trucks going 60 miles an hour.

But enough about the stuff that has nothing to do with the show, despite any desires I have to discuss the atmosphere before the show, who else was sitting next to us, how slowly the crowd moved, the vaguely museum like display in the hallways or why it appeared that 75% of the people entered from stage right, I will refrain so that I can in fact get to the meat of the matter; Séquence 8.

Now this was my first time seeing Les 7 doigts de la main, and if you weren’t aware, they are one of these “new-fangled” circuses that don’t use animals and focus on the body, as in acrobatics, gymnastics, contortion and other stuff like that. After seeing the show twice, I’m trying to wrap my head around how exactly I would define a circus and a circus troupe. Because for the most part, it seems that a circus troupe is a collection of freelance performers who happen to be available to perform for the duration of whatever tour has been organized. As far as I am able to figure out, continuity of performers is not something that is a priority with a 21st century circus troupe. Similarly, it seems to me that a “new-fangled” circus is a loose collection of things that the performers can do, seemingly linked together by a director. Now that I think about it more and harder, I’m surprised that I haven’t seen (or more to the point heard, since I really haven’t seen tons of circuses) a circus that uses Frisbees and/or pogo sticks – after all there are tons of circii (that’s just pretentious, the plural of circus is circuses) which use hula-hoops, hacky-sacks and other products popularized by Wham-O. But if you haven’t noticed, I’ve digressed. Apologies.

The show itself starts when someone I think is Colin Davis plays at being some sort of host/presenter part starts reciting in badly accented French while dropping papers that look like those you get from fortune cookies something that after having seen the show twice I am completely and utterly unable to remember at all. Then it quickly becomes obvious that this is one of those “new-fangled” circuses as the seven other performers quickly run on stage and do an awful lot of tumbling, acrobatics, gymnastics, jumping around and rolling. After having seen the show twice, I get the distinct sensation that Ms. Carroll and M. Soldevila were the ones responsible for the parts like that trying to use the mass movement as some kind of unifying undertaking that makes it obvious they are all part of one unit and not disparate parts.

While the jumping up and down and the gymnastics were very well done, I’m not quite certain I buy into the concept of it making them all one unit. But I’ll get to that in more detail later. In total there are about 15 vignettes that for the most part spotlight the specialties of the performers. Because of them being very distinctly separated, any kind of half-assed, after the fact attempt to group them together is going to obviously come up short. Not only because the rolling and tumbling isn’t anybody’s specialty, but also due to the fact that by getting everyone to do kind of the same thing they all end up going down to the lowest common denominator, which is never a good thing, and when being juxtaposed against everyone’s best is only going to suffer, and suffer badly.

The first significant vignette, is Alexandra Royer‘s Russian Bar act. She acquitted herself very well, doing a bunch of double flips (which is about two more rotations than I am capable of doing) but what I found particularly weird was that the audience applauded on the simple flips and was pretty much silent on the more complicated ones. I also was able to take advantage of a thought I had towards the end of the first performance, that was to note how many times acts required spotters. Under the presumption that no spotters meant that whatever was being done was relatively easy, and spotters meant that, while not necessarily difficult, potentially dangerous. Ms. Royer had spotters. In between the first time I saw the show and the second time, there were (obviously) some changes made, most notably being the talk-show portion at the beginning between Mr. Davis and Eric Bates in French. I can’t say I missed it the second time around, and it left me wondering why they even thought that it was a good idea in the first place.

There’s a short segment that effectively kills some time while they play around with the pole during blackouts (the stage was made rather bare. Six large wooden cubes, one pole that was probably 15 to 20 fee tall, a desk with some very funky legs, and a backdrop made of some empty but ornate frames). Imagine assuming a pose on the pole, and then when the lights come back on there is another person or persons in completely different poses on the pole. Easy laugh. Which doesn’t quite lead into or progress naturally, but is succeeded by Maxim Laurin‘s trapeze act. Which is quite spectacular. On both nights it got the biggest round of applause up to that point, and I noted his stomach, which not only was the major muscle he used to manipulate his body, but was also very flat and made me realize that I probably could use a little bit more exercise than I am getting.

At various points all of the gentlemen performers performed shirtless, and there was an entire time killing segment where three of them (including one lady performer) very slowly disrobed, after putting on a bunch of excess layers. For the most part it was what I called the time killing segments that while not bad per se, didn’t really seem to me to serve any purpose other than possibly allowing some folks to catch their breath. Specifically the thing with the tape, the thing with the loop machine and the previously mentioned cut talk show bit. I could understand how initially they might have been put there to either establish character, or further the plot, but when they finally put the show together, there wasn’t any plot and beyond being themselves, there weren’t any characters. The only time killing segment that even came close to working was the ring the bell one, where Mr. Davis asked questions of the audience and M. Laurin had to climb the pole to ring the bell.

I also was unable to figure out any connections between the music played and what was happening on stage. The music veered from a really bad lounge jazz version of Cry Me A River by Lisa Ekdahl

to a pretty pathetic attempt at hip hop sung and performed by the performers themselves. Note to future show producers, if you have cast members who know how to juggle and/or do acrobatics in the air and on the ground, it doesn’t mean, and in fact is extremely unlikely, that they also are great singers and musicians. If you haven’t noticed when you’re even a halfway decent singer you get paid an awful lot more than being a great circus artist. If I had a choice between doing flips in the air and singing on how I wanted to express my creativity, the songs would win out every time, and while I recognize that I don’t think like everyone, in this particular case I do think I am in the majority.

But enough of the negativity, despite the past couple of paragraphs, it really was a good show. Besides the Russian Bar and the Trapeze, there were five other circus vignettes. Mr. Bates juggling cigar boxes, Devin Henderson and Mr. Davis doing a Chinese hoops act, Tristan Nielsen and Camille Legris doing some hand-to-hand act, Ugo Dario and M. Laurin on a Korean Plank and Ms. Royer on and in an aerial hoop. All of which were particularly good. If you want to get a general sense of the circus-y stuff that was in the show, I would suggest watching the videos that I put in the preview article I wrote about the show.

While watching it the first time, it seemed like each performer brought their specialty to the table and then someone else tried to link them together into some whole. It ended up giving the performance a sincere but naïve sense. Sincere in that all the circus stuff was dead-bang on, drop dead amazing. Naive in that it almost seemed like the performers had written the show.

On the second night I saw it, everyone seemed to have a case of the dropsies, although on both nights when the Chinese hoops were lined three high it took the same number of tries for Mr. Henderson to make it through the triple high stack, which on one hand-made me question the possibility that he missed on purpose. And on the other caused the audience to become incredibly sympathetic, actively cheering for him each successive try, until he got it. Which led to the evening’s largest and loudest round of applause. On Tuesday Mr. Bates dropped boxes, the trumpet failed during the rap number and there were a couple of other non-scripted moments.

Despite that, I thought that the second performance I saw was much tighter. I don’t know if that would be due to the revisions made in between, or if it only seemed that way because I had seen everything before, or if my concept of “tightness” as it applies to a circus performance is woefully outdated. Personally I prefer the first one. I also should point out that on the first night I was almost sitting next to Teklieng Lim who had been hired by the 7 doigts de la main to draw some sketches of the show,

Teklieng Lim's sketch of Alexandra Royer of Les Sept Doigts de la Main in Séquence 8
Teklieng Lim’s sketch of Alexandra Royer of Les Sept Doigts de la Main in Séquence 8

You can see all the other sketches here.

The actual circus stuff in Les 7 doigts de la main’s Séquence 8 is quite good, actually even better than that. I think I could easily watch Mr. Bates, Ms. Royer, M. Laurin, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Davis, Mr. Nielsen, Ms. Legris and Mr. Dario do their stuff many more times than the twice I have already. However, I have no real need to hear them sing or watch them act even if it was something written by Shakespeare sung to a tune written by Bach. Trying to link various circus acts together with characters and plot just doesn’t work in this case, I’d almost go so far as to say that it would be better titled as Eight Séquences instead of Séquence 8.

If you haven’t seen it, it is still playing here in Montreal until Sunday, and then after that you’re going to have to go to Monte Carlo, Graz, Philadelphia, Boston or Toulouse to see it (although judging by the schedule there will be more performances added, there are some holes

Preview of Circo Aereo and Cirkus Cirkör in last week’s Le Devoir

Howdy!

I almost missed it (Le Devoir is on my regular reading list, but somehow this one slipped through the cracks) but Isabelle Paré writes a lengthy (1,296 words in French, 1,164 in English) preview of the foreigners coming to the Circus Festival currently happening. From what little I’ve been able to glean Circo Aereo and Cirkus Cirkör look pretty cool as well.

Someone needs to introduce Eric Bates to Steven Briand

Howdy!

Imagine the possibilities!

More on Eric Bates here and more on Steven Briand, here.

And don’t forget Montréal Complètement Cirque, where you can see Mr. Bates in action as part of Les 7 doigts de la Main‘s performance of Séquence 8 starts tomorrow.

Montreal Completement Cirque – The Free Stuff

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Last week I was invited to the press conference for Montreal Completement Cirque. It was a grand affair and lots of fun. This is part fourteen (and the last one) of what you can look forward to…

From July 5 to July 15 there is a whole slew of things happening circus related that don’t cost a cent. The ones for which I’ve been able to find some kind of video that gives you a sense of what they will be like are below.

For the entire time Cirque Carpe Diem will be performing from 2 o’clock to 8 o’clock in the Old Port.

From July 5 to July 8 on Wellington, Parc de l’Honorable-George-O’Reilly and Parc Monseigneur-J.-A.-Richard, Atlas Géocircus, Le Cirque Fantastic, École de cirque de Verdun and Les Clowns de Ménage will be performing (not all at the same time).

On July 10 at 10 o’clock Le Troisième Souffle will perform at Parc de Normanville.

On July 7 and 8 at 2 o’clock Toxique Trottoir

Mystika Circus

Throw 2 Catch

As well as L’Impro Cirque will be performing at the Olympic Park.

July 9 at 9:30 Charlie Chaplin‘s The Circus will be screened in Place Emilie Gamelin

Throw 2 Catch will also be preforming on July 8 at 11:30 at Tohu.

On July 10 at 7:30 Jean-Félix Bélanger

will be performing with Le Troisième Souffle at Parc Wilfrid-Bastien.

Montreal Completement Cirque – Circo Aereo

Howdy!

Last week I was invited to the press conference for Montreal Completement Cirque. It was a grand affair and lots of fun. This is part thirteen of what you can look forward to…

From July 11 to July 14 Circo Aereo will be performing Ro-Pu at Usince C. Tickets range in price from $20.25 to $41.25 depending on your age.

Montreal Completement Cirque – WHS

Howdy!

Last week I was invited to the press conference for Montreal Completement Cirque. It was a grand affair and lots of fun. This is part twelve of what you can look forward to…

On July 13, 14 and 15 WHS will be performing Odotustila at Espace Libre. Tickets cost between $20.95 and $30.95 depending on how old you are.

Montreal Completement Cirque – Rodrigue “Chocolat” Tremblay & Philippe Trépanier

Howdy!

Last week I was invited to the press conference for Montreal Completement Cirque. It was a grand affair and lots of fun. This is part eleven of what you can look forward to…

On July 10, 11 and 12, Rodrigue “Chocolat” Tremblay will be performing Maestro and Philippe Trépanier will be performing Clip in a double bill the Lion d’Or that will cost you anywhere from $19.95 to $29.95 depending on how old you are.

Rodrigue “Chocolat” Tremblay

Philippe Trépanier