When Cirque du Soleil first mounted Quidam in 1996, it did something no previous Cirque show had done: It set the show in the grind of daily life.
"It starts out very simply but very theatrically in a living room with a mother, father and daughter," said general stage manager Gabriel Dubé-Dupuis. "As opposed to different Cirque shows, where you're where you're right away thrown into an imaginary world with funky characters, this one has ground that we can all relate to."
The story centres on Zoé, a bored child with apathetic parents who escapes into an imaginary space where she learns to engage with the outside world.
Characters from her real life, like nameless passersby ("quidam" in Latin), become familiar through her invented world. In designing the show, Dubé-Dupuis said, its creators imagined what life would be like in the new millennium.
Since its debut, the production has toured five continents and millions of people have watched its international cast of 52 acrobats, musicians, singers and characters. Each artist has between two and seven costumes - which means a total of 250 costumes, 500 costume accessories and 200 to 300 pairs of shoes travel with the show. (They also travel with their own washer-dryers, FYI).
"I'm biased of course, but I think it's one of the jewels of Cirque du Soleil," said Dubé-Dupuis. "I think it stepped out of every boundary that Cirque had pushed at that time. They pushed it even further."
Dubé-Dupuis is in a better spot to judge than many, having grown up with the circus. As a teen, he moved with his family to Las Vegas from Quebec, when his dad got a permanent gig working for Cirque. Dubé-Dupuis found a home in the backstage environment at 16 and never left the entertainment industry.
Stage management can be a challenge - it means helping coordinate 16 trailers and 100 people on the ferry to Vancouver Island for this show, for example. But it's a fulfilling one that allows him to to have his hand in everything from lighting and sound to interacting with the audience.
With nearly two decades in the biz, he still speaks glowingly of Quidam.
"Some of the acts of Quidam are some of the best acts that Cirque has ever created," he said. "The final act is, to me, the masterpiece. Because it uses nothing as an element or prop - it's nothing but the human body.
It's 20 people on stage building pyramids, throwing each other in the air in such a very choreographically innovative way."
