And the lights come up!

The audience is transported to a world of insects — singing and violin-playing cockroaches, scrambling red ants, soaring scarab beetles, stretchy spiders, bounding crickets, and more. Lifelike projections, mind-blowing tricks, Brazilian-inspired music, and even audience participation all help to breathe life into the story of an exotic bug who develops feelings for a sassy ladybug in a colorful ecosystem.

This is Cirque du Soleil’s show OVO (which means “egg” in Portuguese). Intrigued Bostonians can experience this entertaining insect world at Boston University’s Agganis Arena between now and Sunday, July 28.

Now, buying a ticket to Cirque du Soleil’s 25th live production will bring one into this world of beautiful bugs. That being said, believe it or not, according to Janie Mallet, OVO’s senior publicist, “half of the show actually goes on backstage.”

In other words, Cirque du Soleil performances offer more than 100 types of jobs. So, apart from the feats that the audience sees on the stage, there are many other operations going on, from lighting and special effects to acrobatics coaching to finance to marketing, and even HR and immigration.

As Mallet mentioned, it “takes a bunch of different backgrounds to create this show.” It takes a bunch of different nationalities as well, with about 25 countries represented on this tour.

Some of the performers, including those that play the red ants, attended circus school and two are former Olympians. But these acrobats, comedians, and musicians have a lot to do backstage as well, between training with their mobile gym for hours before the show and studying the video recording of their performances immediately afterward.

Although OVO premiered in Montreal back in April 2009, the cast and crew help to ensure that everyone’s experience is constantly improving.

For those who are a part of it — whether onstage or behind the scenes — a Cirque du Soleil show is a way of life. With shows staying in a city 1-2 weeks at a time (a total of 10 weeks on the road and two weeks off) and 20 trucks that carry everything they may need, the company members are immersed in their own world of constant change.

This change even applies to the audiences’ reactions, which tend to vary based on the culture of the city OVO has reached.

Nansy Damianova, a gymnast who represented Canada at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, said that she noticed how the audiences in Japan always wait until the very end to show that they enjoyed the performance, whereas Wellington Lima, an artistic acrobat who won the Brazilian national championships of trampoline in 1997, remembered audiences in Spain whose stomps during the show echoed throughout the arena.

Nevertheless, for Damianova, who plays one of the show’s scarab beetles and takes part in the Aerial Cradle act, Lima, who plays one of the crickets and is seen in the Trampwall act, and Peter Wickham, a French-Canadian lighting technician who has been with Cirque du Soleil for more than 20 years, it is the audience’s reaction that makes every long day worth it.

Damianova is boosted by their cheers as she is flung into the air, Lima is reminded that he is helping to create a space in which people can let go of their divisions as he bounces high up off the trampoline, and Wickham is glad to help people be happy and free of their problems for a few hours as he climbs a rope ladder 30 feet up to direct lighting from his perch above the arena.

Then the arena’s lights finally turn back on and it is time for the audience to get back to the ups and downs of everyday life, and for the company to get ready for another show and soon, another city. Make sure to come experience this wonderful fusion of talent before they do!

(For more information about OVO and other Cirque du Soleil shows, cities, dates, and tickets, go to Cirque’s home page HERE.)

–July 24, 2024–