Aug 11 2004

Mysteries of Mystère

by Megan Edwards

Cirque du Soleil’s Mystère is now in its tenth year at Treasure Island. A decade is a long run, but judging from the crowds last weekend, the magic isn’t fading, not even a tiny bit. Neither are the costumes, the lights, the sets… but I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I rush on, I must explain that when I went to see Mystère last Sunday afternoon, I got far more than another enchanting performance. As part of the show’s tenth anniversary celebration, the public relations folks at Cirque du Soleil thought it would be nice to offer backstage tours. I was lucky enough to read about them in the paper, and even luckier to score a ticket.

I arrived at 1:30, dutifully wearing the laminated backstage pass I’d received when I picked up my ticket. By two, a crowd of about a hundred had joined me. The theater doors opened, and we all poured inside. After we had taken seats, several members of Mystère’s staff took turns telling us about the show, Cirque du Soleil’s history, and how the stage in front of us worked. As I watched various architectural forms move as if by magic, I learned that all the artists - that’s the correct term for the performers - are required to have plaster casts made of their whole heads. This seems odd until you understand just how perfectly their costumes must fit. There’s no room for error with a Cirque du Soleil headpiece, and that pretty much applies to everything else about the show. Everything looks whimsical, but the precision, not to mention the manpower, required to carry it all off has nothing to do with whimsy.

After we had seen a rehearsal of a sequence involving six artists on bungee trapezes and watched other artists “chalk” trapezes and rosin up the uprights on a structure called the Chinese pole, it was time to go behind the scenes. I was with a group led by Randy Williams, Mystère’s operations manager.

As you might expect, most of the theatre is taken up by the stage and the seats for the audience. Everything else is tucked into the space left over, mostly behind, above, and on the sides of the stage. We spent well over an hour moseying through the labyrinth, a fascinating beehive of activity where preparations were underway for the next performance. A costumer was stitching the lapel on a bright read tail coat. Light technicians were testing “chases,” pre-programmed computerized light sequences, and a special effects technician was making white smoke roll across the stage. In the greenroom, a couple of artists were longing on sofas watching television, and another two were shooting pool. In an exercise room, a coach was giving pointers to several more artists who were practicing sequences I later recognized in the show. As we ogled it all, Randy kept peppering us with lots of amazing facts. There are 10,000 different items of costume used in Mystère, for example. Four of those costumes, the orange-and-yellow Lycra suits worn by the women on the bungee trapezes, have 12,000 sequins apiece on them. All the numbers were mind-boggling. After a while, I felt as though I were running out of “wows.”

Before we headed back into the theatre, Randy showed us the hydraulic lifts that raise and lower the stage, a system unique to Mystère. “If these things ever snapped,” he said pointing to the coil-wrapped cylinders, “They’d be like Slinkies on crack.” They’ve always performed flawlessly, though, and like everything else, they have backup systems designed to kick in if necessary.

As I waited for the performance to begin, I wondered if “seeing the man behind the curtain” might detract from my experience of the show. Exactly the opposite was true. I was more amazed by the artists, especially the ones on the bungee trapezes, since I had seen them rehearse. And, having seen the plaster casts of their heads, how could I fail to be impressed with how perfectly their headdresses fit? I noticed the lights more, and the music. As I watched white smoke cover the stage, I thought about the technician making it happen.

The magic of Mystère lies not in its illusions, as lovely they are. It lies in that symbiotic union of skilled and creative people who come together to present an intricate and beautiful performance night after night. They’ve done it over 5,000 times now. Having seen what it takes, all I can say is, “Wow.”

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