"KOOZA tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world. KOOZA is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil: It combines two circus traditions – acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor.
The Innocent's journey brings him into contact with a panoply of comic characters such as the King, the Trickster, the Pickpocket, and the Obnoxious Tourist and his Bad Dog.
Between strength and fragility, laughter and smiles, turmoil and harmony, KOOZA explores themes of fear, identity, recognition and power. The show is set in an electrifying and exotic visual world full of surprises, thrills, chills, audacity and total involvement."
This is the first time I see people giving a standing ovation at the end of several acts, at least 5 times if my memory doesn't fail me. And those performers getting them must have felt good, because usually the public only gives a standing ovation at the end of the show. Each act was just outstanding, and there were errors that occurred during 2 different acts, and that just made it more real for me.
There are several main characters: the trickster, the innocent, the king, two clowns, the pickpocket, Heimloss, and the bad dog. Out all of them the Trickster was the one that grabbed my attention, this charming, charismatic, sexy and sophisticated character, made my head turn a couple of times. Jason Berret was the performer that was supposed to play the characters, but he got injured during rehearsals and I understand he is not playing his character during the Cirque's stay in Montreal. I don't know the name of the understudy, but can please someone introduce me to him?
Incredible performance by all involved, and it is true the Cirque du Soleil has gone back to the roots of the circus, it feels different, more powerful and dangerous. There were several times when I didn't want to applaud because I was scared by doing so, I could interrupt the performers and they could fall to their death. Actually I wanted to tell everybody else to be quiet, and sometimes I almost felt like asking the crowd to do just that.
The music is not one of the strongest points of this show, and I guess it is expected for a not so theatrical performance, but a more acrobatic one. Nevertheless, the voice of the sole singer is easy on the ears. The clowns were super happy, always smiling and not too aggressive - I was one of those that were scared of clowns when I was a child - and they were actually sweet with everyone.
Another impression I had was that you could see some Las Vegas influence in the show, which would make sense if you count how many theater shows they have in that city. Costumes were once again delightful to see, and it sexily covered those well defined muscles and beautiful curves of the performers. Skin tight colour tops were worn by several of the male characters, giving the illusion of sexiness but not to erotic, just perfectly innocent.
The pickpocket act would have been even more entertaining if the volunteer he had picked to come up to the stage spoke English, or even better if the performer himself spoke French - with or without the language, just unbelievable how he cleared the pockets of his victim - and you thought you only saw that in Latin America eh?
There were a couple of times when I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Like when one of the acrobats of the "HighWire Act" almost felt to the ground, stopped only by his grabbing of the wire - he then pulled himself back up to continue the show - none of the performers for this act wore safety strings.
I loved the Latin dance in Unicycle, and I stopped breathing while the Balancing on Chairs act was on, only to be snap out of my concentration by the vibrating cell phone in my pants - I thought I had silenced my phone, instead I put it in vibrating mode. There are some surprises that occur during the shown, but I won't talk about them otherwise they won't be surprises anymore.
This is one of top shows I've seen so far from the Cirque du Soleil, and if you have the chance, go see it because it's worth every minute. I'm actually surprised to know there are so many Montrealers that had never seen any of their shows - you definitely don't know what you've been missing all this time. Please do not forget to introduce me to the Trickster.
Bravo Cirque du Soleil.
Pictures by cirquetribune.com
Quote by cirquedusoleil.com
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