Cirque will rock you

Taking note of Cirque box-office grosses, Live Nation, the company that produces many of the spectacular rock arena shows, came to the Montreal-based company and asked them to design a "live arena event'' that could travel in venues usually home to Madonna or the Rolling Stones. The show must be able to pack up and move on every two or three days. The result is Delirium, which opens tonight for a three-day, five-performance run at Rexall Place.

Cirque founder Guy Laliberte approached Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, whose production company 4D Art had designed Cirque's "live'' 10th and 20th anniversary shows. You may remember them from the television show (and subsequent DVD) that saw Cirque's surreal world of live performance and spectacular projections, bring the streets and buildings of Montreal into bizarre life. Lemieux is on the phone from his home in Montreal.

Despite the fact that the show has been on the road for some time, Lemieux is as excited as if he was just sitting down to design it - the heavily accented French words spilling out of him in a torrent. "All Laliberte told us was to use the music of Cirque from the very beginning - 20 years of it. We went to all the shows - everywhere in the world.

I found what came out of it very touching. It created a very big world harmony - a world beat. "Producing for Cirque is a director's dream come true,'' he says.

"You come up with a story and then you go to their huge databank to find the specific talent you want. There are thousands of people all over the world who have auditioned for Cirque. "So just by pushing a button, we could find exactly the kind of performance we wanted.

For Delirium, we have 45 performers on stage from 22 to 23 different countries. It is inspiring to see these people come together to do something harmonious.'' The casting is done at the very beginning because often an impressive talent emerges and part of the show, or a specific character, is built around them and their specific abilities.

"Well,'' says the director, "We don't really worry about that, but it's not unlimited. It's a much bigger budget than most touring companies. Cirque du Soleil takes enormous risks with every show they produce.

They are focusing on imagination and not profits. "Since Delirium is the first of its kind, we couldn't base it on any commercial model. There is no big star like U2 - in fact, there are no stars at all.

The show is surreal and difficult to understand - the characters speak a weird language. But it is spectacular and entertaining. I don't know of any company anywhere that shows that kind of faith and courage.

'' "It's like a dream - a celebration of different cultures across the world,'' says Lemieux. "He lives like the rest of us in our cities and apartments, watching life go by through our windows. "After his adventures, he slowly comes back to reality and to a party with real people.

Even if you don't fully understand the entire show - audiences sense what is going on and are very entertained. You can enjoy it just looking at the show.'' "It's staged like a big street and that goes back to Cirque's early beginnings on the streets of Montreal,'' enthuses Lemieux.

"There is a 130-foot playing area filled with traps and flying rigs, allowing the performers to materialize out of nowhere and float about.'' There are two specially designed bridges capable of holding 130,000 pounds of equipment - including 27 motors. Lemieux's area of expertise is projection and so there are 540 feet of projection surfaces - the equivalent of four Imax screens and 30 high-intensity projectors to flash the thousands of images.

Even Lemieux, who created the whole thing, is amazed at the logistics needed to keep the show on the road. "There are 26 big 50-foot trucks,'' he explains. "Twelve buses in which people sleep and eat as they go from city to city.

They have washers and dryers. They bring a whole kitchen with big, big ovens. There is an entire cafeteria.

"You go across the continent and into different cities but you always eat at the same table with the same smiling friends. With 150 people, it's like a small town that moves from place to place. "The food is amazing - better than any restaurant.

It's organic. A lot of the artists are very picky. When I'm with the show I always eat there.

'' In its quest for world domination through spectacle and imagination, Cirque du Soleil has reinvented Las Vegas. With Delirium and its dream-like landscape and stadium-shaking music, it is well on its way to reinventing the travelling stadium rock show. Delirium plays at Rexall Place tonight through Sunday.

There are two performances on Saturday and Sunday.