Crystal, Cirque du Soleil’s show that takes place on the ice at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax this week through September 1st is a mesmerizing and awing mixture of circus, dance, figure skating, ice dancing, extreme skating, and vivid dramatic storytelling. What makes this show unique and impressive within Cirque’s 42 show canon is that many of the circus performers had to learn not just how to skate for Crystal, but in some cases had to relearn the basics of their acrobatic skills in order to adjust to performing on ice. Similarly, the skaters had to learn performance and circus skills. The level of mastery in both areas for all 43 artists is astonishing.
What I love the most about Cirque du Soleil is how brilliantly intertwined the circus elements are with the narrative. Crystal tells the story of a poetic daydreamer, Crystal, who feels like she doesn’t fit in with her family and the community around her, who she sees as robotic and unimaginative. She sets out skating on a pond and, like Clara from The Nutcracker, finds herself suddenly in a world full of fantasy and wonderment. In this upside-down world, Crystal meets her Reflection and she begins an adventure of self-discovery. Crystal’s path isn’t always easy and her Reflection oscillates between helping her and pushing her beyond her comfort zone, but she realizes she has the ability to soar (literally) to incredible heights.
The most astonishing moment in the show for me was watching Crystal perform on a swing trapeze while wearing her figure skates. It doesn’t seem like it should be humanly possible, but that’s part of Cirque du Soleil’s signature magic and charm… making the impossible possible. There is also an incredible Pendular Poles routine with performers jumping from pole to pole and leaping from the poles toward the ice, landing on a soft mat, which their castmates move to ensure they fall exactly where they are supposed to. The chair balancing act defies all logic and understanding of gravity; the audience last night was absolutely breathless watching the performer accept the final two chairs and then balancing on the top of all of them. There is also a stunning duo trapeze number, some glorious ice dancing and the skating equivalent to a Rap or Dance Battle, where four skaters try to one-up each other by performing tricks on the ice.
The most iconically “Canadian” scene in Crystal is a hockey game that mixes extreme rollerblading (or skateboarding) with ice skates to create “extreme ice skating-” where performers skate up and down ramps and do flips in the air on ice while wearing ice skates. It’s a wowing feat, and the whole scene is joyful, playful and reminiscent of a scene you might see in a cartoon. It’s probably not surprising, given my background is in the theatre, that my favourite character in Crystal is the clown. He is Crystal’s friend, with a beautiful innocent spirit, who is full of silliness, but also pathos, and for whom things often go wrong (to the delight of the audience)… but he is resilient, creative and resourceful, despite his setbacks. He has a beautiful number where he channels Gene Kelly and dances on the ice with a lamp that is great fun and very sweet. The ability of this performer to communicate so clearly without words in such a huge arena, to people sitting on all sides of him is so impressive. He gives Crystal much of its comedy, but also a lot of its heart.
The music for Crystal, by Maxim LePage, is very reminiscent of a film score, but has a few pop songs woven in as well, which is appropriate since we are entering the imagination of a young woman, who would likely hear these songs as anthems in her head. There are musicians onstage, including Paul Reid from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, as well as in a small pit backstage, playing all the music live. The use of projections (Johnny Ranger) to help fill out the magical areas of the show is very effective and it blends in effortlessly with Éric Champoux’s epic lighting design and Mark Vreeken’s sound design. There is intermittent narration in voice-over, which helps to tell Crystal’s story, along with the music. The creators do a lovely job of keeping the narration simple so that the audience is also encouraged to use their own imaginations to piece the various elements together. Marie Chantale Vaillancourt’s costume design also really roots the characters in Crystal’s perceptions of them and how they live in her mind’s eye. I was struck in Geneviève Dorion-Coupal’s choreography how much she was able to weave dance into the narrative, thus showcasing that along with their own unique skating and circus skill sets, these performers are all also beautiful dancers. The choreography in the typewriting scene is especially evocative. Bringing all these elements together, and creating brand new mixtures of acrobats and ice skating, directors Shana Carroll and Sebastien Soldevila have created a true marvel of theatrics here with Crystal.
Of the one hundred people travelling with this show, twenty-two are Canadian, eleven artists and eleven technicians/staff. Along with Brad Reid from Dartmouth, Olympic figure skater Shawn Sawyer from Edmundston, New Brunswick is also in the cast. The rest of the cast and crew are comprised of artists from twenty-one different countries. Cirque du Soleil began in Baie-Saint-Paul near Quebec City in the early eighties, originally performing under its current moniker for the first time in 1984. In this way, all of Cirque’s shows are, of course, inherently Canadian, but this fusion of ice with circus uniquely captures and explores our national imaginations, identities, and landscapes in an exciting and daring new way.
Crystal plays at the Scotiabank Centre (1800 Argyle Street, Halifax) tonight (August 29th, 2019 through September 1st. August 29th and 30th shows are at 7:30pm. August 31st shows are at 12:30pm, 4:00pm and 7:30pm and shows on September 1st are at 1:30pm and 5:00pm. The show runs 2 and a half hours (including a 20 minute intermission) and is appropriate for all ages. Tickets are available online HERE or by calling the Box Office 902.421.8000.
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