There’s something about Cirque du Soleil shows that drives me crazy. I mean in a good way—at least kind of in a good way. I mean, I love its shows to pieces, don’t get me wrong, but they also frustrate me, a lot. They obsess me, send my thoughts off in a thousand different directions at once. I leave Cirque du Soleil floating in a cloud of unknowing, bemused, silenced by a surfeit of images and feelings, with so many assorted pieces of the show floating around my head—costumes and performers and bits of music and overwhelming moments of aesthetic ecstasy—that when I try to put it all together and articulate what it all means . . . I just can’t.
In Luzia the circus acts are a canvas upon which the Cirque du Soleil team overlays costumes and music and light to create dazzling performance-art pieces. They’re great in themselves, but they’re also a springboard to something meaningful as opposed to mere eye-popping entertainment. At times they’re more reminiscent of the circus imagery in paintings by Picasso and Chagall or poems by E.E. Cummings than of, well, circus acts.
Through 9/3: Wed-Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 4:30 and 8 PM (8 PM only Fri 8/25), Sun 1:30 and 5 PM; also Tue 8/1, 8/15, and 8/22, 8 PM; Thu 8/3, 8/10, and 8/17, 4:30 PM United Center 1301 W. Madison 312-455-4500cirquedusoleil.com $35-$399
