THE BALLOON MAN

Cirque du Soleil classic updated for smaller arena venues

Young Zoé is bored. Her parents ignore her. But in the imaginary world of Cirque du Soleil’s long-running “Quidam,” she meets characters who encourage her to free her soul.
July 21, 2011
By Channing Gray
Journal Arts Writer
By now, fans should know what to expect from Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal-based circus troupe that combines Olympic-caliber gymnastics and acrobatics with a healthy dose of performance art. At some point — and usually more than once — there will be a scene in which performers twist and turn in ways that Mother Nature never intended. There will be aerialists and acrobats who spin around like human whirligigs. There will be great sets and costumes. And there will be a storyline — the stranger, the better — that ties everything together (or at least gives the individual performances a vague semblance of order).

Certainly, all those ingredients can be found in “Quidam,” a long-running production that was recently updated by the Cirque creative team of Guy Laliberte, Franco Dragone and Gilles Ste-Croix. The show, about a lonely teenage girl whose fantasies come to gravity-defying life, comes to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for a five-day run beginning Wednesday, July 27.

Recently, Journal arts writer Channing Gray talked to one of the show’s performers, Jamieson Lindenburg, about the production and about the experience of touring with the world’s best-known new-wave circus troupe.
read more:
http://www.projo.com/theater/content/go_quidam_07-21-11_GAOOR0T_v21.3a560.html