Review: Cirque du Soleil: QUIDAM!

Last night Mike and I went to Cirque du Soleil’s opening night of QUIDAM in Edmonton! We’ve both never been to a Cirque show before and we were blown away!! Wow! What an amazing spectacle. All of the performers show what the human body is capable of. I was left IN AWE… at their strength and flexibility (and coordination).

My favourite acts in the first half of the show was the Diablos (Chinese yo-yo) and the fantastic skipping rope scene. They were both so playful and fun and I’ve never seen anyone skip (or “yo yo”) as fast or as elaborately as the Quidam performers. The coordination was amazing – from skipping in between the ropes to jumping out and taking reigns of the rope, there was seamless transitioning. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the main skipping duo Norihisa Taguchi and Kata Banhegyi!

My favourite acts in the last half of the show were the Spanish Webs and the Banquine. During Spanish Webs the acrobats fall from the ceiling, the only thing keeping them from hitting the ground are ropes wrapped around their bodies. Couldn’t take my eyes off! I call the Banquine cheerleader stunts on steroids. (Doesn’t sound classy but you get the picture). Incredible human pyramids – backflips onto people’s shoulders, tosses, flips, moves that made me hold my breath praying that we wouldn’t be witnessing a horrific acrobatic stunt gone wrong (we didn’t, yay!) The Human Statue act featuring two incredibly strong performers balancing on one another in various positions was also really, really impressive (and this is the act that really made me feel super weak and inferior).

The audience erupted in laughter every time Toto Castineiras “The Clown” came out in between acts to do improve skits with the audience. Mike was pretty much killing himself it was so funny. I guess these audience-involved comedy sessions in between acts is pretty common for Cirque shows – as we’ve never been before this was a brand new and totally fun experience in between the swinging, flipping, juggling, etc.

The live band (and the sound system in general) was terrific – the music and powerful vocals literally shook our seats. We were immersed in Cirque.

It’s not a particularly bright and cheery show. The headless man in the suit (Google tells me that he is ‘Quidam’ – everyone and no one at the same time, yes I don’t get it either) is pretty creepy and there was a lot of darkness, fog, creepy life-less hanging bodies in wispy white costumes in general. I say flat out that I wouldn’t have understood anything story-line-wise if I hadn’t Googled it afterwards, but you definitely don’t need to follow the plot in order to enjoy the incredible acrobatic feats!!

The Aerial Hoops routine was dropped from Wednesday night’s performance for what I can only assume was technical reasons. The hoops started coming out but then were quickly retracted and then intermission was announced. Hopefully those attending other Quidam dates can check it out because I’m sure it would have been an impressive act.

Side note: Any So You Think You Can Dance fans who have seen Quidam think of Mark in the Bleeding Love routine whenever the dad in the suit came out?

I have no other Cirque du Soleil’s to compare Quidam to (hopefully that changes in the future!) but I can say that both Mike and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. In Mike’s words: “It was cool.” Lol.

Quidam runs until Sunday in Edmonton and I definitely recommend you catch it if you can!

Linda

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