Giant turtles. Bollywood-inspired music. Unicyclists and acrobats in dazzling costumes—inspired by traditional tribal designs, animals, plants and birds—whizzing through the air. It’s a new Cirque du Soleil production called “TOTEM,” and it traces the evolutionary journey of the human species from primitive amphibian to our ultimate desire of being able to fly.
After premiering under the blue-and-yellow Grand Chapiteau on Quays of the Old Port in Montréal, QC, “TOTEM” will swing across to Québec City, QC’s Big Top on the Port of Québec July 22 to Aug. 29, then take flight to Amsterdam and London.
Using classic Cirque visual and acrobatic language, 52 performing artists from 19 countries flirt creatively between science, myth and tradition, led through the production by characters like a Darwinesque explorer, an Amerindian hoop dancer and a critter-loving environmentalist.
“TOTEM” is the second collaboration for the Quebec-based Cirque du Soleil with hyper-creative Quebec artist Robert Lepage (the first was “KÀ”), a director of film and other media, scenic artist, playwright and actor. With a budget of just over $30 million, Lepage wrote and directed “TOTEM,” a lavish production set on an island surrounded by marshlands and featuring plenty of lush multimedia throughout with images of Iceland, Hawaii and Guatemala taken by Cirque founder, Guy Laliberté, from the International Space Station during his recent visit.
Though “totem” generally refers to wooden, west coast native-carved sculptures, for Lepage it is a symbol of the creatures that led to man’s evolution. “The show,” he says, “is based on the human body’s memory of this evolution.”
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