Cirque du Soleil has returned to London with Corteo, a characteristically sumptuous evening of nostalgia and European whimsy explored through circus.
While the company has its roots in Quebec, there is no denying how this celebration of quirky characters and the fantastical-Gothic reintroduces audiences to the European imagination. Corteo (meaning 'procession') leans into a world of aesthetic nostalgia of which Federicko Fellini would be proud: a clown elevated in his bed, is teased by Christmas tree style angles as he travels through the past.
And this past is, of course, brought to life with full-blooded vigour and jaw-dropping technique, as well as man-sized chandeliers, a life-size, Pollock-style theatre and the framework of a Mediterranean village serving as swing-bars. The diversity of Corteo’s set pieces is testament to Cirque’s original concept: a circus without animals that sprinkles the intrigue of drama as well as spectacle.
There is also skill to be found in how more traditional circus interludes have been embraced in the show’s storyboard: a strange but charming music act with glasses and singing bowls, a Scottish golfing pastiche in which one performer pokes their head from the stage as a much persecuted ball! The latter really did bend an audience of English minds around the surreal humour of our French-Canadian cousins. At one point, our transient protagonist-clown delivers a show-stopping balancing act on a large ladder, without the support of other performers or nifty effects.
Similarly, a spot is found for some otherworldly audience interaction as 1m tall Valentyna Paylevanyan is launched into the Royal Albert Hall’s auditorium, attached to giant helium balloons, trusting that ticket-holders will bump her back into the air—a spectacle that really turned the clock back to variety. Valentyna and fellow small performer Grigor Pahlevanyan also provide a sensitive and hilarious rendition of Romeo and Juliet within a toy theatre that will excite arts literate audiences and the casually curious alike.
Aside from the romance of designer Daniele Finzi Pasca’s dreamlike Victorian-pastel design, awe-smacking moments of suspension and agility are provided by an aerial duet—Teatro Intimo—lit in sky blue and demonstrating amazing scope and freedom resulting in a kiss. Some of the sequences involving tumbling and seesawing are just downright sexy, while holding together a loose story of camaraderie and community from somewhere on the continent.
Earthy and evocative folk singing supports Corteo’s action, sung confidently in French, Spanish and Italian, as led by band leader Philippe Poirier-Prenette. Indeed, despite the nod to a cartoon-like version of Scotland, the show is woven with the language and artistic fabric of these countries, as executed by technique sharpened in every other corner of the globe.
Director Line Tremblay can be forgiven for sneaking in some moments that, true to the genre, felt very left-field, as this international celebration of life, through a clown’s death, is a privilege to witness and experience.