A world-famous Canadian stage show will come to Seoul in early September to entice passionate Korean theatergoers.

“Quidam,” a circus spectacle combining music, theater and acrobatics, will open at the Seoul Sports Complex on Sept. 10. It will be the production’s final tour after 20 years of performances around the globe.

The show was produced by Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil and premiered in Montreal in 1996. It has since captivated nearly 14 million fans in five continents through 6,200 performances. 

As a pinnacle of multisensory theatrical experience, the show displays an extravaganza of choreography, music, storytelling, costume, makeup, stage technology and lighting.

It started as a big top show and was converted into an arena format in 2010. The display in Seoul will be in a big top, which is much larger than in an arena, and retains the feel of a live circus.

“I may be a Canadian ambassador, but I am here first and foremost as a big fan of Cirque du Soleil,” Canadian Ambassador Eric Walsh told journalists at a press conference in Seoul on Thursday. “I saw the first show in 2004, and since then have tried to see at least one every year. The costumes, music and acrobatics make the whole show an absolute thrill, every time.”

The Cirque du Soleil, based in Montreal, started with a group of 73 street performers. They went on a first tour around the Canadian province of Quebec in 1984, and have not stopped since, reaching a worldwide audience of 155 million, with 15 million coming to their shows last year alone.

Some 1,300 artists and 5,000 people from 50 different countries work for the company, with 1,500 employees at the Montreal headquarters.

“‘Quidam’ has a very special status among all other Cirque du Soleil productions. It is a show with a soul. Every performer breathes life into it, which is why it has been so successful over the years,” Mast Entertainment marketing and communications director Jean Heon told The Korea Herald.

“The story depicts growing human isolation in our society. We are all quidams, which loosely translates from Latin into anonymous passersby, strangers in the crowd or the silent majority. The show has a special message urging us to care of each other, and establish our lost communications in families and communities.”

Cirque du Soleil press attache Jessica Leboeuf said: “Many people have remarked that our show had a Tim Burton-ish feel to it, being surreal, lurid and shadowy, but the story is a bit like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ ― the Cirque du Soleil version of it. We really try to explore the world through human emotions, and allow the audience to ride character Zoe’s emotional rollercoaster.”

The storyline revolves around Zoe, a young school girl who loses communication with her distant and apathetic parents. Feeling that she lost all life’s meaning while seeking to fill the emotional void, Zoe slides into the whimsical, imaginary world of Quidam, where she meets characters that encourage her to free her soul. 

“When the writer and director Franco Dragone first came up with the storyline in 1994, we were skeptical whether the show could make big,” Leboeuf said. “But into the late 1990s and onward, with the growing consumerism and people’s isolation, the storyline became closer to reality and found a hungry audience.”

Leboeuf attributed part of the show’s success to artistic guide Guy Laliberte, who attracted the best talents in different expertise around the world. “Quidam” employs 45 performers and 45 support staff from 23 different countries, and the troupe feels like a “small United Nations,” she explained.

Also as Canadians, the staff are used to diverse multicultural settings with people from different nationalities and upbringings, Leboeuf added. 

“The performers literally interact with the crowd during the show. We handpick people from the audience and do a spontaneous clown cinema act,” she highlighted. “Audience feedback really influences the performers, because they really crave it and thrive on it to modify their act. In every country or city, the response is different. The artists will gauge the crowds in the first week and readjust for a live, animated performance.”

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)