Kurios

The French Canadian company Cirque du Soleil’s mission as a company was to reinvent the concept of what circus could be. Founded in 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix, they wanted to create a circus which did not torture animals nor one where scary clowns would appear but one which engaged its audience from beginning to end with themed shows, one which told a story and was truly magical. Cirque du Soleil in its inception was a tiny Quebec based single show, funded initially by that province to celebrate Quebec’s centenary. Cirque grew from its humble origins to having shows running simultaneously all over the world, including a year-round residency in Las Vegas.

Like other entertainment companies, Cirque du Soleil was hit hard by the pandemic, having to close all their shows for extended periods. The show closures brought the company to a state of collapse. In 2020, Cirque du Soleil was forced to file for bankruptcy protection and had to terminate the jobs of 3,500 employees. But after a complex financial restructuring, Cirque du Soleil’s shows have slowly started to reemerge.

London’s Royal Albert Hall plays host to one of the company’s best, Kurios, originally created in 2014. Kurios is a dazzling production which reminds audiences what the company does best: produce visions of magic.

Kurios was created and directed by Michel Laprise, and it looks at a late 19th-century world creator who invents a machine which defies the laws of time, space, and dimension. As he reinvents everything around him with steampunk, he is joined by characters from another dimension, who interact with him. The journey the show takes the audience is other worldly and seems to move back in time; a time before electricity when everything was run on steam. Audience members marvel at the acts which are of course made up of some of the best performers in the world.

They remind you about what separates Cirque du Soleil from other circuses. It is its insistence on telling a story as well as entertaining its audience, Kurios does this wonderfully as we enter the world of the inventor and see all those he encounters. Be it the tiniest of fairies or acrobatic twins who seem to defy gravity. Or a wonderful comedy sketch of the date from hell, as the man turns into a rather annoying cat. All done with a theatrical sleight of hand which is still very much the envy of companies around the world.

My personal favourite was a hand magician who through the use a giant lamp, reflecting lights and a sleight of hand, creates the allusion of a hand which running amuck throughout the audience. Startling and very, very funny. It’s almost impossible to see how the allusion was created.

Hearing the various languages spoken by audience members at the end of the show it was a wonderful reminder of why art matters. A reminder that good art is magical, and magic is a common language spoken all around the world.