Corteo is quintessential Cirque du Soleil, insofar as it has a clear, simple and alluring theme that it flubs totally, but has such jaw-dropping set pieces that you don’t exactly leave with dramaturgical quibbles at the front of your mind.
And by ‘jaw-dropping set-pieces’ I mean there’s a bit where the audience is invited to bounce a performer of diminutive stature strapped to four large inflatable balloons around the Royal Albert Hall as if she were a human volleyball. Is that… okay? I’m going to be honest, it didn’t feel 100 percent okay to me, although one-metre tall Ukrainian performer Valentyna Paylevanyan seemed to be having fun. Nonetheless, I’m unlikely to forget it, even if I wanted to: and that’s Corteo, baby!
Created and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, the show is apparently influenced by nineteenth century Italian clowning, and is possibly set at the funeral of Stephane Gentili’s Mauro the Dreamer Clown, although it is often very hard to tell. ‘Whose funeral is this?’ somebody asks at one point, during one of the brief bits that actually look like a funeral. ‘I don’t know’ replies another, which possibly looks a bit Beckettian on paper but in fact pretty much sums up how half baked the concept is. Clown funerals are a thing! Why not do something coherent with the idea? A circus show doesn’t need a story per se, but Corteo’s refusal to explore its own premise is so pathological it speaks of demand avoidance.
Still, if you’re here for setpieces, Corteo delivers...
Although you'll not see any lions being 'tamed' in massive stripy tents, London's modern circus scene is far more jaw-dropping than the suspicious magicians and caged animals of old. Have your breath taken away with your pick from our list of London circus shows.
