The Martlet

The lights are dimmed in a purple glow. On the centre of the stage, a white drape hangs like a tent. An electric guitar sounds, then clowns scurry in and force members of the crowd to join in the gyrating circus moves. One woman gets flipped upside down. A man loses his shirt. Then everything goes dark.

These nymphs aren’t just pesky troublemakers, though — they are players in the world famous Saltimbanco Cirque du Soleil performance, which made its premiere in Victoria at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on May 29, and proved that the human body can become pure magic.

The show consisted of nine acts, from a comedic mime, to the strong men, to shimmering trapeze artists. But while the acts seemed classical, the execution was anything but. In a rendition that seemed something between Disney-gone-burlesque and children’s toys on crack, these fanciful actors wowed the crowd with beyond-human flexibility, dazzling costumes and stunts for a magical story that we’d be sure were only fancy graphics if we weren’t seeing it with our very own eyes.

For anyone who knows how to wheel a BMX, swing a pair of poi, or flex out some keen yoga moves, you might have a future here —almost.

But perhaps most impressive of all was the multi-cultural nature of the act. While the show opened with a greeting in French and English, the majority of the acts are verbally non-descript.

When the characters did speak, it resembled something close to gibberish. And while the audience may not have been able to translate verbatim, the meaning was always breathtakingly clear. With a cast of 49 artists consisting of 19 Canadians and 20 people from other countries, it’s no surprise that each movement does the talking.

While 15 of the current actors have been on since the show’s original big top tour starting in Montreal in ’92, Saltimbanco (from the Italian “saltare in banco” which literally means “to jump on a bench”) has performed over 4000 times, and toured on five continents.

While it was the show’s first time in Victoria, the performances were met with a circus-hungry crowd —the Memorial Centre sold-out each of the seven shows. And while possibly overlooked (with all the incredible activities to focus on), the background band played the stellar lead in rising the tension and heartbeats of the audience.

With music by René Dupéré, and an operetta-like clown songstress, barely a moment was met without a beat.

And when the beat did pause (at least a heart beat) when one player suffered a miscalculated fall unexpectedly, yet safely, off the Russian Swing, the rest of the cast stifled the audience’s dismay by play-falling at the exact same time. Very clever.

But then, viewers expect nothing less than clever from one of the most enchanting shows on earth.