Review: Wintuk

On the way home from my first-ever Cirque du Soleil show, Wintuk, I turned to my parents and stated, "that was the first time in a long time that I felt like a kid again." Indeed, that was the magic of this show. With the simple story line of a city boy in quest of snow, I was told by my Cirque-frequenting friends that this show had more of a story line and more verbal narration than typical Cirque du Soleil performances. This, I'm sure, was due to it being geared towards children and marketed as a holiday family event. But whomever it was geared towards, and for whatever purpose, made little difference to me as I sat there, completely mesmerized and enchanted.

The set looked like pages of a storybook, complete with watercolor backgrounds, talking lampposts, larger-than-life marionette puppets, and monsters come to life. The first half of the program moved slowly at times as the story line was set and characters were introduced. The acrobatics were framed into the story, such as the skateboarders and cyclists, the 'construction worker' who balanced on an assortment of tubes and wood planks to 'fix' a broken lamplight, or a tightrope walker who performed on a clothesline. After intermission, we were transported into a magical ice world, where, similar to The Nutcracker, a showcase of various acrobatic acts took center stage. Included in these was a terrific and hypnotic contortionist; dressed in a blue leotard and dancing with several silver hoops, at times her human form was lost completely in favor of fluidic shapes. Another favorite was the Russian bars, and another still the dancers suspended on aerial straps. At times, the performances were anxiety-producing: mind-boggling acts of balance and gravity-defying movements. At other times, the performances were entrancing, with the movements, music, and lighting taking hold of my emotions.

I was left trying to remember the last time I smiled for 2 hour straight, the last time I had not a single worry for such a stretch of time, the last time magic actually took over. It was probably the last time I was sitting in the Theatre at Madison Square Garden, watching Sesame Street Live as a 5 year old. The magic of Wintuk is not that it is a show for children. It is that adults become children, watching this show.