RUNNING AWAY WITH CIRQUE ELOIZE

Cirque Eloize amazes once again in "Hotel" at Proctors.

​Cirque Eloize was back at Proctors on Friday night. And as in previous visits, the Montreal-based ensemble did what it does best – create a psychedelic universe where its inhabitants shattered the audience’s belief in gravity and reality.
 
On this visit, the ensemble of acrobats, aerialists and jugglers performed their latest creation “Hotel,” a place where a kooky casts of guests checked in with an equally zany staff of bellhops and front desk workers. The collision, created by Eloi Painchaud, was both funny, surprising, and better yet, a testament to working together to build something bigger and better than a single soul could erect.
 
While inspiring, “Hotel” started off rather slowly. It began with two men greeting each other in the lobby. They engaged in a hug that bloomed into a tangle of arms from which the two struggled to extract.  That led to a show of strength, including a series of upside down poses while balancing in one-handed handstands. The core power of Cesar Mispelon with support from Julius Bitterling was incredible, but the show should have started with a more overt introduction to the ensemble as a whole.
 
That did follow with singer Sabrina Halde who whipped up anticipation for “Hotel” with her opening song, backed up by the dazzling daring of the Cirque Eloize ensemble. It was at this point that the audience was locked in and ready for the magic that unfolded.
 
Cory Marsh hypnotized with his ride inside of a hoop. How he manipulated its movement with nary a movement was beyond comprehension. Also amazing was Una Bennett’s work with a rope, sliding up and down as the audience held it’s breath. Emma Rogers and Andrei Anissimov made a marvelous team with their fluid and easy give-and-take acrobatics. And Antonin Wicky’s slapstick, as he crawled up onto the peaked of the set to retrieve a suitcase, was classic comedy.
 
The creative cast, directed by Emmanuel Guillaume, ended by scaling and sliding down poles in a showy display of their adroit skills. They then formed a musical ensemble, (yes, they actually played instruments too) with Halde’s strong vocals closing the curtain on “Hotel.”
 
Certainly, “Hotel” wasn’t Cirque Eloize’s best production. But if one can forget the setting and just concentrated on the member’s artful circus talents, it didn’t really matter. Cirque Eloize, once again, amazed and put smiles on every face there.