New Cirque du Soleil show opens Friday in Irvine

By PAUL HODGINS | THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

“Kooza,” which opens Jan. 8 in Irvine’s Great Park, is Cirque du Soleil’s 19th production, but when you listen to Gilles Ste-Croix talk excitedly about his Quebec-based circus’ latest touring show, he makes it sound like his first. Ste-Croix, a former stilt-walker and Cirque’s cofounder, supervises its creative content.

The Orange County Register: I read that “kooza” can mean chest or box. Is that the definition you’re using?
Gilles Ste-Croix: It’s an old Sanskrit word which means really “bag of tricks.” At the beginning the show this young and innocent character receives a parcel. He opens it and then out pops the Trickster, a character that makes his hat and his costume change colors. That moment is the journey’s beginning, setting a path to the discovery of a new world.

Register: Does the Trickster become the Master of Ceremonies?
Ste-Croix: He makes a world appear and he makes this innocent go into this world. And the world he is visiting is full of tricks, full of unexpected things – including fear. The innocent character is representing us, and “Kooza” is about discovering how to control our fear, how to survive unexpected situations. It’s very loosely done. But it leaves an impression – you can definitely read it that way.

Register: How did the concept for “Kooza” germinate?
Ste-Croix: I talked with David Shiner, who comes from the circus. He was the clown in “Nouvelle Experience” (an early Cirque du Soleil show that was a huge hit in Los Angeles). In “Fool Moon” (Shiner’s two-man clown show, performed with Bill Irwin), he played a sort of dangerous and unpredictable character. That’s his thing, what his forte is: humor in an absurd and slightly dark way. David wanted to do a circus show where people can be scared – especially scared for the performer. He said, “That’s what circus is about: pushing the limit.”

Register: Shiner’s edginess sometimes extends to audience interaction.
Ste-Croix: Yes, that’s his type of approach. When we were discussing this show he said, “I want to bring humor in a way that the audience feels captive. Nothing can happen to them but we can play tricks on them.” It’s a lot like he does with his own shows.

Register: As the show’s director, does Shiner get his performers to work in a Shiner-like way? Do they roam around and get into the audience?
Ste-Croix: Some of the characters do that. And they have some surprises too. At one point they bring out a big cannon and shoot confetti into the crowd, but until they do you don’t know what’s going to come out of it. At another point someone in his seat flies up 20 feet in the air. It’s an edgy type of humor, absurd.

Register: Describe some of the other characters.
Ste-Croix: There is a clown who is the king of his world, the kingdom that the innocent discovers. The Trickster is a fixture of that kingdom. But the clown king doesn’t control him, so it’s a reverse role in a way. The king thinks he has the power but he doesn’t. The Trickster, who is normally a character who makes jokes, is in this case running the show. Heimloss is the technology behind the show. He looks sort of like a robot and he lives under the stage. He makes some noise; sometimes he appears then quickly disappears. People also disappear beneath the stage, perhaps because of Heimloss. So he’s kind of godlike in a way, too.

Register: What about the Pickpocket?
Ste-Croix: He is part of that unexpected kingdom. When someone comes up onto the stage he picks his pocket or removes his tie. And it’s right in front of our eyes. We see it but the person doesn’t realize it. The person goes back to his seat and the pickpocket walks up to him and says, “Is this yours?” People think (the victim) is a plant, but he’s not. It’s not a set-up – he’s a real pickpocket.

Register: Where did you find this guy?
Ste-Croix: Pickpockets have always existed, but some of the ones who go legitimate recycle their talents in the cabaret world. In Germany you’ll see a cabaret act where pickpockets will walk into the crowd and pick up things and make jokes about them.

Register: Who is the Obnoxious Tourist?
Ste-Croix: He’s at the beginning of the show to help set things up. It’s someone who is obnoxious and disturbing. He has a big dog – really a human dressed as a dog. This dog pees on the audience – it’s really unexpected. The kids love it.

Register: This show sounds like a return to Cirque basics. Would you say that’s accurate?
Ste-Croix: Yes, in the sense that it’s a return to the original aspect of the circus. But in other ways it’s a departure for us. We’ve always been told by the critics that we are a safe circus. We never endanger anybody. It takes away the thrill or the fear for the acts. So in this show there are acts that are (fear-inducing) but safe. But at the same time the fear is at a level that we’ve never gone to before.

Register: How have audiences reacted?
Ste-Croix: People sometimes complain that we push it too far, because they get scared. They say we shouldn’t put our artists in danger like this. Actually the artists are so well trained that they’re not in much danger. But when a guy is walking outside the Wheel of Death and skipping rope up there while the thing is rolling – could he fall? Yes, he could. But he has practiced that fall so he can catch himself. Same with the guy on the high wire: He can fall but he has learned from his grandfather and father how to recover. It’s a controlled danger. We’ve never played with that aspect before.

Register: Where else did you go to for inspiration?
Ste-Croix: We went back to the origins of the circus. In the Roman circus they had the gladiator. We didn’t know if he was going to kill the lion or be eaten. In the traditional three-ring circus a human would work with animals to a point where he would do things people found risky, even hard to believe. Those are things we wanted to explore. Umberto Eco said that when you go to a circus and you see a person defying death and he lands on his feet and survives, for one moment you believe that death doesn’t exist. It gives us hope, however fleeting, that death can be defied. We are going after that feeling.

https://www.ocregister.com/articles/croix-226462-register-circus.html