Ovo – Cirque du Soleil brings you into the world of bugs! Five stars!
Ovo – Cirque du Soleil brings you into the world of bugs! Five stars!
For the older crowd, you may remember movies like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids or perhaps A Bug’s Life. Today’s video games, like Grounded, emulate the thrilling experience of being miniaturized and surrounded by giant insects. For kids, bugs can be cute like ladybugs, graceful like butterflies, or creepy like spiders. Regardless of perspective, the fascination with insects is universal.
Cirque du Soleil’s Ovo invites audiences into the enchanting world of oversized insects in its current New England run. Opening at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, Ovo is one of Cirque’s long-standing touring shows. If you’ve seen it in the past, you’ll be excited to know that many new acts and performances have been added, revitalizing the production and attracting a fresh audience.
The title Ovo, Portuguese for “egg,” reflects the recurring theme of the show. Upon entering, audiences are greeted by a massive egg dominating the stage. This centerpiece nearly fills the entire performance space and, like the acts that follow, is ephemeral. In an instant, it disappears, revealing a stage adorned with massive flowers and a lush backdrop of leaves.
For those who appreciate the overall visual spectacle, mezzanine or balcony seats provide an excellent vantage point to take in the full mise en scene. However, families with young children might prefer the intimacy of stage-side seating, where Cirque’s trademark audience interaction comes alive. The performers, dressed as various insects, venture out to meet and greet, creating moments of wonder and delight for kids.
Whether you’re revisiting Ovo or experiencing it for the first time, Cirque du Soleil’s ability to immerse and amaze ensures a memorable night for all ages.
Cirque du Soleil are masters of putting on amazing shows balancing pacing and spectacle intermixed with comedy and fun. You can expect the music, dance and lighting to blend seamlessly with the ensemble as they weave a tale that interposes the various acts before you. The story is simple – bugs are meeting and wandering around as they watch the many species perform before us all.
Cirque will inevitably show some low key but no less impressive acts. Among them are balancing and contortionist insects that bend in ways that’ll make your spine crack in your seats! A glow worm makes the theatre dark as neon fireflies bounce around the stage. A silver bug walks the slack rope on a giant teetering ark.
Of course, Cirque also has some amazing team performances as well. A quintuplet of ladybug acrobats rolls out some very impressive and highly coordinated gymnastics while tossing various oversized pieces of food back and forth to crickets! Caterpillars float to the sky only to emerge from a silk cocoon and then perform an ariel duet once the metamorphosis into butterflies is complete. Caterpillars climb the stems of the onstage oversized flowers and display their strength and coordination.
When you think the show has hit a crescendo with an amazing act, Cirque sends in the clowns to break up the adrenaline high the crowd just experiences. A slinky like caterpillar crawls across the stage as another bug carries an oversized egg on his back – hence the name Ovo (meaning egg). These little segments serve as great bridges to the big acts and add the immersive and interactive elements Cirque is known for.
The most impressive aspect of these shows are the big ones that involve whole teams of performers. Cirque masterfully places these at the end of each act to leave the audience on a high note. You go home knowing you saw some very impressive performances. Like many circuses, the first half closes with the flying trapeze. While they save the best for last as tumbling crickets leap out while a pair of black widow spiders climb to heights and leap four stories in the air as they bounce about on trampolines!
Whether you’re revisiting Ovo or experiencing it for the first time, Cirque du Soleil’s ability to immerse and amaze ensures a memorable night for all ages. You can never do a show like Ovo justice in simple words. To see it is so much more than can be written. Head out to the DCU center in Worcester Massachusetts to see Cirque Du Soleil OVO – now until January 12th. And then Hartford Connecticut from March 13th to the 16th.
For more information please visit – www.cirquedusoleil.com/ovo