"Rain=Happiness"

I can’t say I’ve loved every dance show or every theatre production I’ve ever gone to see. But Cirque Eloize’s Rain was wistful, whimsical, incredibly amazing and full to the brim with talent and tricks that made me and the audience members audibly “wow!”

The costumes were reminiscent of Paris and the beautiful French-Canadian accents of the cast were put to use singing in Italian, Spanish, French and English.

The premise of the show is a circus in rehearsal, making mistakes, having fun and little flirtations and intimate relationships that develop in the theatre. But this is a new brand of circus, the cast themselves even referred to their company as “new circus.”

One thing was certain, this show was definitely theatrical. In the sense of Theatricalism, which I learned about in Theatre Arts during the Fall 2006. Theatricalism is when the play tries to show that it is a play, addresses the audience directly and is “aware” essentially of its non-reality.

Stephane Gentilini is one of the most beautiful and funny men I have ever seen in my life. He is a native of France and studied at the National Circus School in Montreal from 1999 to 2002. He “narrated” the show in a way, describing moments from childhood, of remembering the first rainfall of the season and of some somber moments.

In the second act, the piece called “Tissue” was an incredible display of Spanish Web. Basically, there are two massive ribbons or “tissue” attached to the ceiling or on a bar high above and acrobats can climb and twist and wrap their way to beautiful positions and dangerous drops from top to bottom that are incredible to see.

There are moments that made me sad, and plenty of whimsy and fun and silliness and flirting to lift anyone’s spirits, especially in the awful weather we’ve had the past 24 hours in Boston.

From teeterboards, to tumbling and juggling, from a strong women act to a duo trapeze act that was physics-defying, all the pieces of the show intrigued. I was never bored, not for one minute.

Other numbers that stand out to me are the Aerial Hoop number which one of the female acrobats performed as if it were routine, as if she were just brushing her teeth. She spiraled and flipped in, out, above and below the Aerial Hoop and I was truly awed. It ended with her dipping her feet onto the stage where a pool of water had enveloped the entire floor of the stage and creating patterns in the air with the water.

The Finale was especially beautiful and fun with the cast swimming, joking and playing in the water, and eventually in the rain itself, because they did really make it rain on stage.

I recommend everyone to rush out and check out this show before it leaves town. There are two shows today and one show tomorrow, Sunday March 18. Student rush tickets are only $20, and I got there more than an hour and half before the show started (that’s when student rush tickets go on sale) and got second row orchestra seats and could see the expressions on all of the cast members faces.

I cried in the end. I told myself not to but tears were streaming down my face as I smiled and reminisced about what it was like to be carefree, to play in the rain, to not have the drudgery of adult life, complications, relationships and work.

The show is beautiful and I may be traveling to Montreal with my family for a week this summer. I can only hope Cirque Eloize is there, performing either Rain or some other new and incredible show.

However, after the show my mom and I were stuck at South Station for several hours and we didn’t get home until 1:30 am, even though the train we were scheduled to take was 10:35 pm. South Station had lost power, meaning no heat, no signals, ergo no trains. It was bad, but the show was worth it.