OVO

OVO
Cirque du Soleil. Northshore, Hamilton, Brisbane. Writer, Director and Choreographer: Deborah Colker. Director of Creation: Chantal Tremblay. July 17th to September 2nd, 2012.

Cirque de Soleil has bounced back into Brisbane with its new show titled Ovo (Portuguese for egg). Almost an institution now with its blue-and-yellow Big Top and village and on this occasion an air balloon to boot for an appropriate introduction, this new production is an epic journey into a colorful ecosystem teeming with life, where the variety of bugs work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement. When a mysterious egg appears in their midst, they are awestruck and intensely curious about this iconic object that represents the enigma and cycles of their lives.

The cast of Ovo is comprised of 54 performing artists from 16 countries and with impressive sets, costumes, lighting, an effective combination of live and pre-recorded music, the creative team have cleverly intertwined the 'insect' theme with a variety of breathtaking circus disciplines: in particular the foot-juggling and Icarian 'ant'-tics (a remarkable display from the Chinese cast-members), the mind-boggling Firefly (Tony Frebourg) with the use of the diabolo and to finish, some incredible trampoline acrobatics from the 11-team 'crickets', involving crawling and jumping to precipitous heights, including the back wall of the set.

Using an international vocabulary of bohemian mime, sight and sound, the traditional circus 'clowns', Ladybug, Master Flipo and Foreigner interspersed the action by employing just about every eccentric non-verbal technique in the book, even with the audience participation, to tickle your funny-bone, and with effective aplomb. Perfect for an international production.

In all this was a scintillating heady mixture of camp, camaraderie, caricature and 'classe', with charisma; and plenty of bubbles.

Brian Adamson

Photos: OSA Images. Costumes by Liz Vandal.

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