REVIEW: Cirque du Soleil is back in town, an echo of circuses past
iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil.
It should say something about the Cirque du Soleil brand that even a show like ECHO — unclear in concept and messy around the edges — is a great time for audience members of all ages.
But indeed, it’s hard not to make a comparison between shows, and miss the acts that stopped in Toronto in 2022 and 2023. Cirque du Soleil has paid us a visit three times since the pandemic — once with the steampunk-inspired KURIOS, then last year’s Wheel-of-Death-supplied KOOZA, and now ECHO. KURIOS and KOOZA were fabulous touring shows, both memorable for their stunts and their riffing on the bones of the Soleil formula.
On its own, ECHO will satiate thrill-seeking Torontonians: there are plenty of high-flying stunts and larger-than-life set pieces, including a several-storeys-tall humanoid puppet with disturbingly lifelike eyes. An agile young cast performs high-flying tricks, while a live band thrums away with increasing intensity.
But in the context of Cirque du Soleil extravaganzas past, ECHO is a touch disappointing. On the night I attended, there were visible cracks in the show: performers frequently bobbled their landings, hitting the stage with a nerve-wracking thud. Balls juggled one moment were balls dropped the next. Projections presumably mapped to align just so with the massive, mid-stage box were askew at several points in the second act, shattering the otherwise nifty illusions provided by the cube, a massive white structure on which the performers dance and climb.
It’s not terrible — of course not. Original writer and director Es Devlin was onto something with that cube. Sometimes in ECHO, we see the cube disintegrate into tinier and tinier squares; it’s nothing short of magical when projections of boxes turn into real cardboard boxes that earthbound clowns stack to increasingly high heights.
But something seems to have gone awry in the transfer of the show from Devlin’s care to Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar’s (the company replaced Devlin after a weak premiere). The box, while often an interesting premise, poses sightline issues for some audience members — a second-act tightrope walker risks being obscured entirely by the edges of the box and two onstage singers. As well, the box seems to be emblematic of the bifurcated directorial concept: it’s immediately clear without Googling the show’s history that two creative visions come to a head in ECHO, and they don’t gel particularly well. On one hand, you have the ultra-sleek box and the treasures inside; on the other, you have a mysterious world of paper animals infiltrated by a blue little girl and her blue dog. Most Cirque du Soleil shows tend to wield a thin story, but ECHO’s is close to non-existent beyond the initial offer of a girl and her pet on an odyssey of some sort.
Nicolas Vaudelet’s costumes add some visual interest, with lovely, leathery headpieces that suggest all manner of paper-rendered fauna. Jade Pybus, Andy Theakstone, and Hugo Montecristo offer a score that gets the job done — it’s haunting and intense at all the right moments, though it gets a little repetitive by ECHO’s final feat.
Performer-wise, Robel Weldemikael and Meareg Mehar are the stars of the show in their Icarian Games routine, as one spins the other on their feet for an impressive swathe of tricks. It’s one of the simpler feats of ECHO, but it’s also the most successful, binding together athleticism and grace. Clément Malin and Caio Sorana, too, are great crowd-pleasers, stacking cardboard boxes with lots of drama.
Look: if a friend offers you a free ticket to ECHO, or you’re looking for a way to spend a Saturday afternoon with your family, sure, go. But it’s fairly safe to assume the circus will be back in town next year, and hopefully, with a show that doesn’t seem to be coming undone at the seams.
ECHO runs at 2150 Lake Shore Boulevard West until August 4. Tickets are available here.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling is Intermission's former senior editor and the theatre reporter for the Globe and Mail. She likes British playwright Sarah Kane, most songs by Taylor Swift, and her cats, Fig and June. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute in Waterford, CT.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Jaime Lujan in 'Reina.' Photo by Eden Graham.
REVIEW: Documenting seven Toronto indie shows, from Factory Theatre to the Tranzac Club and beyond
I’ve started writing brief reviews of Toronto productions Intermission isn’t otherwise covering, and stowing them away until I collect enough to publish in a batch. And now here I am, with seven.
iPhoto caption: 'Queen of the Night' promo photo courtesy of Luminato Festival.
REVIEW: Two site-specific Luminato concerts explore the significance of daily ritual
Grounded in a heightened sense of time and place, both Dawn Chorus and Queen of the Night Communion express curiosity about how art can disrupt patterns of living.
iPhoto caption: Justin Collette in 'Beetlejuice.' 2022 photo by Matthew Murphy.
REVIEW: For a show about death, Beetlejuice is impressively full of life
It's a thoroughly entertaining musical that even improves on the original film, adding a far more cohesive storyline, clearer character motivations, and an updated sense of humour.
iPhoto caption: Andrew Penner and Deborah Hay in 'After the Rain.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: After the Rain transforms the Tarragon Mainspace into a passionate folk-rock concert
The performers of this world premiere musical got a lot of laughs from the buzzing opening night audience, but make no mistake, they got quite a few audible tears out of us, too.
iPhoto caption: Philip Myers as Mamillius (left) and Lucy Peacock as Time in 'The Winter's Tale.' Photo by David Hou.
Stratford Festival reviews: The Winter’s Tale and Anne of Green Gables
A winter story told by a melancholy child and a fanatical Lucy Maud Montgomery book club help frame the final two productions in the Stratford Festival’s 2025 opening week.
iPhoto caption: The company of 'Bring It On.' Photo by Chris Graham.
REVIEW: Bring It On sticks the landing at Regina’s Globe Theatre
As a whole, the Globe’s Bring It On does everything this musical was designed to do: it’s fast, funny, and fun for the whole family.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Aisling Murphy.
In the darkest months of Yukon winter, it’s all about the Sun Room
I’m here for a week in January as a guest of Nakai Theatre, a hub for theatrical experimentation and outside-the-box programming in Canada’s westernmost territory.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Liz Appel headshot courtesy of Liz Appel.
Five questions with Wights playwright Liz Appel
Intermission spoke with Appel over email for a brief Q&A about Wights, now playing at Crow’s Theatre until February 9.
Call for applications: Publishing and editorial assistant
Intermission Magazine is seeking a dynamic and collaborative individual to join our team.
iPhoto caption: What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
Announcing What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
What Writing Can Do is timed to coincide with the Grand and Theatre Aquarius’ co-production of Waitress, which will serve as a jumping-off point for discussions throughout the Lab.
iPhoto caption: A Christmas Story production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: A Christmas Story feels fresh at Theatre Aquarius
If you want to catch A Christmas Story before it closes, good luck — the show is close to sold out, and with the talent on that stage, it’s not hard to see why.
Comments