Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam comes to Birmingham
THE entertainment starts even before the lights go down as hapless members of the audience are picked out by cast members wandering among the seats.
A woman dressed as a pink rabbit jumps down from the stage and starts hugging a stranger, a clown begins making some children laugh and mysterious figures in white keep appearing and disappearing.
This is the world of Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam – the international phenomenon which comes to Birmingham next month.
Within minutes of the show starting we are carried away to another world. Following the adventures of a little girl, we watch as she leaves her mundane home life and enters a land of mystery, magic and awe-inspiring feats.
A giant wheel comes careering over the stage in which a single man is able to weave, jump and turn in moves which soon have the audience shouting out in encouragement.
He is followed by a troupe of tiny Chinese girls whirling diablos and their bodies in a seamless performance blending circus skills with acrobatics.
Even the most ordinary of playthings become extraordinary in the hands of the Cirque artists as a skipping rope performance sees men and women jumping ropes within ropes, and hula hoops become suspended in the air as acrobats turn and hang above our heads.
Daring jumps and turns see figures suspended from the sky while slow balancing in the shape of two statues has the audience gasping in wonder. Created in 1996, Quidam shares many of Cirque’s hallmarks, blending music, dance, street entertainment, circus skills and the surreal.
Having travelled the world and been seen by more than 8 million people, the show has undergone some technical alterations to ensure it can transfer from the big top for its first arena tour.
And it retains the circus essential – the clown. As he cavorts around the stage, unsuspecting members of the audience are called up to join in his antics.
One minute they are watching the show, the next they are participating with gusto, ensuring old and young a good belly laugh.
As we head towards the conclusion, the stage fills with a multitude of figures who catapult themselves in spirals and twirls through the air. A human pyramid four people high draws the biggest intake of breath as they balance high above our heads.
And then we return to that lost little girl.
Having experienced wonders, she reluctantly re-enters the world of normality and, reluctantly, we follow her.
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