BWW Reviews: QUIDAM is Dark, Thrilling, Captivaiting Cirque Fun

This week Houston audiences are being treated to the enchanting touring production QUIDAM, which had its world premiere on April 23, 1996. QUIDAM is notable for continuing the company's trend of creating darker shows. The title comes from the Latin word that means "a nameless passerby," and tells audiences the story of a bored young girl named Zoé. Ignored by her parents, Zoé retreats into the world of her imagination, an urban landscape filled with many seemingly anonymous and obscure characters. The show's title character, a headless man carrying an umbrella and bowler hat, sets Zoé's journey into motion. She obtains his purple bowler hat and wears it throughout the production.

QUIDAM, utilizing the imagery and aesthesis of traditional Théâtre de l'Absurde (Theatre of the Absurd), is written and thrillingly directed by Franco Dragone, with opulent choreography by Debra Brown. In production, their work seamlessly blends together. The illusion created is visually stunning, offering a constant array of human stunt work that is electrifying, fascinating, and mesmerizing. Furthermore, the dark tone and ambience is well set early on and keeps the audience at a pleasant level of discomfort that makes the stunning, physically demanding acts all the more alluring and magnetizing.

The sumptuous score, composed by Benoît Jutras, is haunting and compelling. The music deepens the tone and ambience created by the direction and choreography. Band Leader, Jim Bevan, does an excellent job conducting his perfectly practiced band, featuring the vocal talents of AlesSandra Gonzalez and Josué Perez Kuri, Olaf Grote on Guitar, Alicia Enstrom on Violin, Josée Campeau on Cello, Andre Boyd on Drums, and Bruno Dumont on Saxophone. Moreover, fans of Josh Groban will be delighted to experience "Let Me Fall" in its original setting, accompanying the aerial silks performance.

As Zoé, AlesSandra Gonzalez is charming and draws the audience in with her beautiful soprano voice. She welcomes us on her journey, and we are glad to follow along. She conveys the simplicity of childhood emotionality well, making us truly believe that she is a young girl (maybe around 9-12) that longs for attention and adventure.

Mark Ward's John is a humorous ringleader that guides Zoé on her journey. He is affable and charismatic. His fear whenever his named is called at a thunderous volume by a disembodied voice is both amusing and appropriate.

The Clown, played by Toto Castineiras, is a show-stealing and showstopping delight. Both of his scenes, the "Clown Car" and "Clown Cinema," are imbued with the hilarity associated with clowns, but made perfect with unpredictable audience participation. I would sincerely suggest purchasing floor seats so you can run the risk of being dragged onto stage, it is an experience that both you and the audience will love and cherish for years to come.

Adree Dionsio showcased impressive ballet inspired physicality as The Target. Leaping around the stage and even performing during the Aerial Hoops segment, the character was consummately intriguing and interesting every time The Target was present on stage.

Boum-Boum, skillfully played by JP Viens, fascinated me and confused me all at the same time. According to Cirque du Soleil lore, "Boum-Boum is aggressively physically fit. And yet, he is lifeless, as though his body lives on only because his soul refuses to leave it." There was a certain malevolent air to the character that was wholly captivating, absorbing even, while being rather creepy. JP Viens screams at the audience with guttural, primal rage, which moves us with a stirring and visceral quality. But like all great performance art, the meaning behind the creation is certainly and entirely left to the individual viewer.

Mother and Father are played by Carol Valim and Patrick McGuire. Both do a great job being emotionally closed off to their daughter; however, as she journeys and even gets lost in her own imagination, we see them begin to attend to and even play with Zoé. By the end, the three are reunited, and they bring about a warm and slightly bittersweet end to the tale. The audience's hearts are warmed because the family unit is brought together happily; however, it's bittersweet because Zoé must leave (even if it is temporarily) her imagination and the friends she created for herself along the way.

Ivan Korshunov's The Aviator is visually appealing, walking about the stage with an Icracus evoking visage. His wings are incomplete, implying that he desires to fly but is not ready to. Or maybe he has already attempted and failed in a similar fashion as Icarus. Like Boum-Boum, his purpose is open to your own individual feelings.

Astoundingly athletic acts pepper the show. The Cyr Wheel performed by Ghislain Ramage; Aerial Contortion in Silk performed by Julie Cameron; Aerial Hoops performed by Lais Camila and Lisa Skinner; Spanish Webs performed by Mei-Mei Bouchard, Guilherme Fortes, Grace Moura, Carol Valim, and JP Veins; Statue performed by Natalia Pestova and Alexander Pestov; and Cloud Swing performed by Emmaline Piatt were highlights of last night's performance. Each of these acts brilliantly utilized incomprehensible feats of sheer athleticism to thrill the audience keeping us riveted and glued to the edges of our seats.

Extraordinary feats of juggling, utilizing the most skilled and intricate hand and eye coordination and balance are also fantastically employed by the production. Wei Liang Lin impressed the audience as he juggled Diabolos (or The Chinese Yo-Yo) with practiced perfection. Later, Patrick McGuire's Manipulation Juggling stole the breath of the audience as he skillfully and precariously balanced and juggled an umbrella, a bowler hat, a briefcase, and large red balls.

The larger Skipping Ropes act, featuring Norisha Taguchi, Kata Banghegyi, and the House Troupe, and the Banquine act, featuring Andrey Bilozor, Andrii Bondarenko, Oleksandr Bondarenko, Anastasia Chistyakova, Ekaterina Evdokimova, Dmytro Filevskyi, Anastasia Gorbatyuk, Ivan Korshunov, Andrey Litvak, Viktor Levoshuk, Andrii Lytvak, Alexander Maslenikov, Viktor Ossolodkov, Alexey Rybakov, Roman Urazbakiyev, Igor Zabiiaka, Sergey Zabiyaka, kept audiences spellbound for the entirety of these fast paced and impeccably precise, stunt-filled performances.

Set Design by Michel Crête and Light Design by Luc Lafortune are both stark and seemingly simplistic. A lot of hard work and effort goes into making it appear this way, for example the floor is uses an aluminum deck and perforated, rubber-type mat that allows light to pass through from underneath. This allows the floor to appear to be made of metal grating and other effects. Also, the trolley system in place for getting performers and sets pieces on and off the stage, known as the téléphérique, aids in creating a barren, monolithic urban appearance, making things appear more simplistic than they are, and in seamless transitions between acts.

Dominique Lemieux's Costume Design perfectly captures the aesthetic of traditional French absurdist theatre, and also plays in the dark tonality, mood, and ambience of the show. Likewise, Nathalie Gagné's fantastical make-up design follows suit.

François Bergeron's Sound Design is perfect for the show and venue. No word, noise, music, or lyric is lost. If lyrics or spoken words are ever hard to follow or understand, it is simply because Cirque du Soleil, as usual, has created a language profile that is unique to the show by blending several European languages together in every spoken and sung portion of the program.

For those that followed the 2002 TV show Cirque du Soleil: Fire Within, we know that the company only casts performers at the top of their game. This is obviously a trait that the company continues to hold dear. Each performer in the production amazes the audience with his or her talents. QUIDAM, like everything else by Cirque du Soleil, features the best of the best in circus talents and creates an unforgettable show that happens on a mesmerizing plane of existence.

Cirque du Soleil's mysterious, dark, and entirely fascinating production of QUIDAM runs at the Toyota Center through Sunday, March 10, 2013. To get tickets and more information, please visit http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/quidam/default.aspx or http://www.houstontoyotacenter.com/events/detail/cirque-du-soleil-quidam. You can also call (866) 4HOUTIX/(866) 446 - 8849.

All photos courtesy of Cirque du Soleil.

Skipping Ropes. Photo by Al Seib.

Statue. Photo by Matt Beard.

Banquine. Photo by Matt Beard.