The glaring presence of Cirque du Soleil in most continents is the tip of the iceberg of a larger set of relations between Quebec circus and the global. By considering Cirque du Soleil's aesthetics and socio-economic depths while revealing the overall state of the circus in Quebec, Cirque Global: Quebec's Expanding Circus Boundaries is an invaluable contribution to the burgeoning field of interdisciplinary circus studies. The volume assembles a collection of fifteen chapters on the local shape and transnational entanglements of Québécois circus production as ‘a globally influential art form’ (p. xvii). Theatre and performance studies scholars will find compelling evidence to reconsider the significance of the circus today, epitomized in Quebec.
The book turns the critical gazes of multiple scholars on the Québécois circus, which in the last thirty years has opened a new chapter in circus history. This new circus era is inextricably linked to the birth of Cirque du Soleil in Quebec in 1984, followed by its global expansion and including the emergence of new circus troupes bred in Quebec. It is also a story of elite training programmes consolidating alongside a major infrastructure complex, crowning Montreal as the circus capital of North America. But if the Quebec circus morphed into an artistic avant-garde with global reach, this story was imminently to be written. Thus the volume may be valued as the first comprehensive exploration of ‘the multiple tales of origin, transmission and disruption marking Quebec's contemporary circus scenes’ (p. xvii).
For keen readers of historical facts, Cirque Global provides abundant evidence to ponder how, in Jacob's words, ‘the Québécois circus freed itself from the more traditional register to form a new aesthetic’ (p. 28). Readers may find a rather detailed depiction of the pulsing ecology of Quebec circus with an in-depth submersion into Cirque du Soleil and less of an exhaustive account of each circus organism. This focus proves heuristically fruitful. The book flexes its strongest muscles by locating the evolution of the Québécois circus within a continuum of local, transnational and global exchanges.
The hybrid nature of the Quebec circus becomes evident throughout chapters. From a historical perspective, in Chapter 1, Leroux assesses dialectical relationships and ‘historical peregrinations between the Quebec and US circus scenes’ (p. 36). Boudreault's Chapter 2 interrogates how ‘from its very beginning, the world of entertainment in Quebec was influenced by British and American cultures’ (p. 55). Readers eager for uncharted circus territories in performance scholarship would commend Chapter 12 by Zhang, which persuasively ‘aims to shed light on the policies and events that activated the links between Chinese acrobatics and Québécois circus arts’ (p. 202). Applauding similar enterprises, Chapter 15 by Spiegel provides a ‘substantial genealogy of activist circus in both a global and local context’ (p. 267), while Chapter 7 by Batson offers a pioneering historical excavation of the 7 Fingers circus troupe, illuminating its intimate approach to contemporary circus ‘as they take on strikingly anti-Soleil postures’ (p. 100).
Chapters focused on Cirque du Soleil interweave empirical research and critical analysis. Chapter 6 by Bennett masterfully elucidates ‘the instrumental value of circus in the context of urban gentrification’ (p. 85). Bringing creativity into focus, Leslie and Rantisi, in Chapter 13, examine ‘the story of Cirque du Soleil as having transpired from a mélange of local synergies’ (p. 239), while in Chapter 10 Mahy approaches the company ethnographically and offers an invaluable inside look at ‘the tug-of-war between artists and managers’ (p. 162). In contrast, Harel's Chapter 11 is a trenchant examination of ‘the Cirque's’ Peel Basin casino project, ‘which would have destroyed Montreal's urban framework’ (p. 187). In similar tone, Lavoie's Chapter 5 is an incisive critique of ‘the Cirque's’ ‘artistic super-elite’ (p. 81). Hurley's Chapter 4 examines the affective and emotional experiences traded under ‘the Cirque's performance service’ (p. 73). In Chapter 7, she offers a sound theorization on ‘the bodies populating Cirque du Soleil's shows’ (p. 123), which can be productively read in dialogue with Fricker's precise examination, ‘Images of Indigeneity in Robert Lepage and Cirque du Soleil's Totem’ (p. 142).
The book includes a compelling report on training and teaching practices at the École Nationale de Cirque de Montréal by Lafortune, Burtt and Aubertin; Leroux's illustrative epilogue; and Barlati's glossary of circus terms. Portraying a comprehensive panorama of the Quebec circus, its constellation of forces, histories and global interconnections, Cirque Global navigates across Cirque du Soleil's icebergs without sinking its titanic undertaking.
