Cirque Stratosphere

The latest production from Tim Painter and The Works Entertainment, Cirque Stratosphere, is, ladies and gentlemen, no mere sequence of world-class feats of hoop diving, extreme skating, pole dancing, hoop dancing, strongman and trapeze acrobatics, comedy, and all the other spectacles we’ve come to accept as normal.  It is certainly all of that; but, defying all expectations, it is a breakthrough experience in circus, and several intense aspects of the experience contributed to achieve that.  There was the unexpectedness of the thematic consistency, maintained throughout in costumery, in voiceover, and in the most brilliant precision lighting in a beautiful colour palette, all raising the audience’s appreciation of a purpose larger than ourselves, of a mission capable of inspiring a generation.  And then there was the music to accompany all of that: not all of it equally sophisticated, but more than enough to lift the audience emotionally into that appreciation.

Several of the more acrobatic acts — including on a Cyr wheel; in a hoop; hoop diving; and especially the pole dance — did inject surprise in themselves: who knew that it was possible to discover new moves on these simple devices?  But the blazing context they appear in, with the lighting, costumes, music, and voiceover all highlighting the audacity that the show celebrates, provided even those acts that many of us may have seen before with an extra kick.

Leaving aside the acoustic volume, which was too intense — please take earplugs! — this is an experience worth mulling over merely for the way in which it can remind us of our common and uncommon heritage.  The set of surprises that Cirque Stratosphere provides is very funny at times (thanks in part to hosting by Tape Face) and diverting throughout, even as it invites fresh thought on a chapter in our history whose daring we might otherwise fail to feel.

Yes, it’s circus, but not circus as we know it.

John P. Harvey

Image: Cirque Stratosphere.  Photographer: Mark Turner.