CIRCUS
KOOZA ★★★★½
Cirque du Soleil
Flemington Racecourse
Until March 26
The company that became Cirque du Soleil began in 1984 with a motley troupe of Quebecois street performers, and has grown since into a juggernaut of world circus. For sheer spectacle, it has no equal – a point the Melbourne season of Kooza, which opened Friday, proves emphatically.
![Cirque du Soleil's Ghislain Ramage, Miguel Berlauga , Vladislav Zolotarev and Michael Jay Garner backstage.](/web/20170206195915im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/u/m/2/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtvbq4.png/1484980737545.jpg)
Uniting stellar production values with the finest acrobats from across the globe, the show will boggle and astonish just about anyone lucky enough to see it.
The scene opens on a small clown in striped pyjamas (Vladislav Zolotarev) trying to fly a kite. He's interrupted by the arrival of mailman with a mysterious package – an alarming jack-in-the-box containing a court jester (Mike Tyus) who beckons us into a wonderland filled with dangers, marvels and dreams.
![The skeleton dance in Cirque du Soleil's <i>Kooza</i>.](/web/20170206195915im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/u/m/2/2/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtvbq4.png/1485125957473.jpg)
At first, the clamorous, anarchic spirit of traditional circus takes centre stage, before a pair of Mongolian contortionists (Sunderiya Jargalsaikhan, Ninjin Altankhuyag) emerge all in gold.
Frozen and entwined, they look for all the world as if they were some lost treasure from an Indiana Jones film, but when they move, the illusion drops to reveal an extraordinary reality: the hyper-flexible duo sculpt the human form into shapes as graceful and perfectly synchronised as they are bizarre.
Acrobatically, Kooza is breathtaking. Some familiar circus acts are performed with such a consummate degree of mastery they can seem entirely fresh. Marie-Eve Bisson rules the skies on cerceau (aerial hoop), as do the white-knuckle feats of four highwire performers from Columbia and Spain, who walk, skip, dance and even ride bikes over a tightrope.
Two devils (Jimmy Ibarra, Ronald Solis) tackle the "Wheel of Death", providing diabolical thrills mid-air, while a splendid group routine on Korean-style teeterboard launches aerial tumbling, some of it on stilts.
![Cirque du Soleil contortionists perform in <i>Kooza</i>.](/web/20170206195915im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/v/c/5/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtvbq4.png/1484980737545.jpg)
There's also a sumptuously executed and costumed hoop manipulation, acrobatics on unicycle, a balancing act on a tower of chairs, as well as vulgar buffoonery in the commedia dell'arte mould, led by a Clown King (Ghislain Ramage).
Such a potted description might make the show sound fragmented, but one of the joys of Kooza is how seamless and theatrically successful it is. Enough narrative is suggested to unlock the imagination without dictating to it, the live music is atmospheric and responsive to the performers, the costumes dreamily evoke cartoons and children's books and medieval dress from different locales, and the set has a few surprising reveals to make the whole elaborate fantasia come alive.
Kooza is circus of the highest quality, featuring performances awesome to behold. The eight-year old sitting next to me applauded with such wild abandon he was hitting me on the outswing, but even adults who've seen their fair share of circus are likely to be enthralled.