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by Cirque Alfonse, directed by Alain Francoeur

Cirque Alfonse, Panamania, Fleck Dance Theatre, Toronto

July 23-25, 2015

“My Family are Axe-Jugglers!”

When I say you must rush out to see Timber! I am not exaggerating.  The show is an absolute delight and has only three more performances.  As part of Panamania, Théâtre français de Toronto is presenting the Toronto premiere of Timber! by Cirque Alfonse, one of the many small moderns cirques that have grown up in the wake of Cirque du Soleil.  In Timber! Cirque Alfonse takes contemporary circus away from the high tech fantasy worlds of Cirque du Soleil to ground itself in the folklore and traditions of Quebec, found in this case in the songs, dances and competitions of an early 20th-century lumber camp.  The show’s unpretentious warmth and good humour are immensely refreshing and the intimacy of the venue (the Fleck Dance Theatre seats only 446) makes the hair-raising acts – like four people juggling axes! – breath-takingly exciting.    

Cirque Alfonse, named after Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez in Quebec, where the troupe was founded in 2005, is made up of three acrobats from the École nationale de cirque de Montréal (Jonathan Casaubon, Francis Roberge and Antoine Carabinier-Lépine), one dancer (Julie Carabinier-Lépine), an actor and former skiing champion (Alain Carabinier) and three musicians (André Gagné, Josianne Laporte and David Simard).  As one can note from the names, this is a family circus with Alain Carabinier the paterfamilias, Antoine his son and Julie his daughter, Jonathan her partner.  Arthur, the 4-year-old son of Julie and Jonathan, even makes an appearance.

One factor that makes Cirque Alfonse so different from Cirque du Soleil is not only its small size but the participation of everyone in the action.  There may be three musicians, but everyone sings and dances to the music.  Julie may be listed as a dancer, but she also does a whip trick and aerial straps.  Grand-père Alain may be primarily an actor now, but he also gets involved in acrobatics, sometimes for comic effect, sometimes not.  Among the musicians, André Gagné is one of the jumpers or “pushers” in the teeterboard act; David Simard, who almost exclusively plays banjo string and electric guitar, becomes one of the flyers in an acrobatic act; and Josianne Laporte, a guitarist and percussionist, surprisingly turns out to be one of the four axe-jugglers.

The set by Nicolas Descôteaux represents a small, simple logging camp with a table, a set of logs sawn short and an outhouse.  You could hardly have a more unpretentious, down-to-earth setting for circus and one the polar opposite of the expensive exotic dream-worlds of Cirque du Soleil.  All the men are heavily bearded like lumberjacks, wear boots, jackets, rugged pants and flannel shirts.  As the action becomes more intense, the jackets and shirts are shed to reveal ordinary tank-top T-shirts and as the acts turns more to acrobatics, the boots are switched for soft-soled shoes.  By the end the flyers in the teeterboard act are in their long-johns and barefoot. 

Except for the lithe Julie, the performers are all too stocky to be mistaken for typical acrobats or gymnasts.  This plus the setting and costuming emphasize that Cirque Alfonse is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.  You don’t need sequins and unusual makeup.  All you need is the ability and the trust of those around you to help you achieve your goals.

Director Alain Francoeur has carefully gradated the series for acts from small to large with songs or stories for a change of pace after particularly exciting spectacles.  The show beings with a group song and dance to a Québécois folksong and merges into a seen of the group helping Grand-père make the soup.  The only difference is that the acrobats first juggle the awkward sacks of cabbage.  then they throw potatoes in the air at Grand-père who cuts in in half in mid flight while two men catch the halves in separate pots.  This continues with the onions and cabbages, again turning the unremarkable act of making soup into something remarkable. 

The three acrobats begin hopping from one stump to another, but this soon runs into the well-known lumberjack sport of log-rolling, even if it is on land not on water.  All the apparatus are fashioned to look like objects one could find in a logging camp or farm.  The troupe uses a long, thin but strong and supple tree branch as a Russian bar.  Remove the wooden seat from a homemade swing and the ropes become aerial straps.  Francis Roberge has a long

scene using a wheel that looks just like an old wagon wheel.  He spins it, balances it on his forehead and for a conclusion rolls about holding it as if it were a Cyr wheel.  The teeterboard is made to look like a log sawn in half and the tower the pushers jump from is the outhouse.                

Balancing, hand-to-hand and acrobatics are blended into other acts and dances as if they were simple to do.  Yet, there are two acts that no viewer is likely ever to forget.  The first is obviously the axe-juggling.  This is organized very cleverly so that it moves from simple (as if that were possible) to complex.  First, only two men juggle three axes on their own.  Then they throw them back and forth between themselves.  Then a third man enters and the three begin a myriad of variations passing off the axes from one to the others or (yikes) even having one man stand in the middle of the other two as hey throw axes to each other.  In the climax Josianne joins the men and we’re presented the incredible scene of two sets of people in a square throwing axes diagonally to each other with the same crossing point in the centre.  The act is so dangerous, I found it very difficult to watch. 

Little did I know the troupe had yet another daredevil stunt on hand.  After demonstrating that a typical two-handled saw was sharp enough to cut through a log on stage, Francis Roberge held out the saw with a handle in each hand to form a hoop that the other two acrobats jumped through in various poses always passing through the toothed side first. 

The excitement of all the acts was enhanced immeasurably by the intimacy of the venue.  It seemed almost unbelievable that such ordinary-looking people could be performing such amazing feats at such close range.  Yet, the point of all the acts is not to frighten but to impress and this and the show’s palpable sense of warm camaraderie is what makes it perfect for both children and adults.  The show has such a short run at Panamania but it received such wild acclaim, one can only hope that Cirque Alfonse, which has already toured around the world, will pay Toronto another visit.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive. 

Photos: (from top) Axe-juggling in Timber! ©2015 Luce Tremblay-Gaudtte; Antoine Carabinier-Lépine jumps through a two-handled saw-hoop held by Francis Roberge, ©2015 Guillaume Morin.

For tickets, visit http://my.harbourfrontcentre.com.