Following a three-year absence, Cirque du Soleil's iconic blue and yellow big top – known as the Grand Chapiteau – has returned to Irvine, this time showcasing a tale that straddles the lines of science and legend to guide the audience through the evolution of humanity.
Cirque du Soleil is known worldwide for putting on shows that approach complex themes through abstract acrobatic performances.
“Totem” exemplifies this and tackles humanity's evolution from its primordial origins to its deep-rooted aspirations of flight. Through 12 acts, the audience bears witness to a plethora of marvels, including a high-flying trio swinging and posing on rings, a group riding 7-foot high unicycles while kicking bowls onto each other's heads and a duo performing spins together on roller skates atop a platform barely large enough to hold them.
The show begins with amphibious humanoids performing flips and crawling around a carapace, evoking the moment when life emerged from the waters. The concept of water is a staple of many parts of the show, with flowing currents often seamlessly blended into the performance through the use of a projection on the stage.
As the show continues, the audience traces the progress of life as it is presented by the performers, from the occluded and abstract to a scene where a trail of increasingly evolved primates and cavemen follow behind a suited businessman brandishing a suitcase and a cellphone.
Mankind's dreams of flight are dealt with in a similar way throughout the show. As the performance progresses, some gravity-defying acts emerge, culminating with performers bounding off bars, dancing and twirling through the air before landing perfectly on the bar again. The act appropriately ends with the performers donning helmets for a final pose, as if they stand ready to break free of gravity forever and journey to explore the stars.
Cirque du Soleil has 19 active shows; many earlier productions have been retired. Though they all have a very particular aura about them, no one show is quite like another. This is largely due to the fact that the themes and messages of the show uniquely shape each performance.
“Creativity is the air that we breathe at Cirque du Soleil. Every time we come up with a new show, it's about going back to a blank page and finding ideas, what we can present to our audience,” said Francis Jalbert, publicist for “Totem.” “We've been around for 30 years, so we have to find how we can reinvent ourselves as we kind of reinvented the circus arts 30 years ago. That's exactly what happened with ‘Totem.'”
Unlike the many residency shows that can be found in Las Vegas, “Totem” is purely transient, like Cirque's other touring shows. The show travels via 65 semi-trucks and can be assembled within eight days and taken down in just two and a half.
“Totem” will remain at the Great Park through Dec. 29, after which it will head for Santa Monica.
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