Vignola - who worked with Lepage on Wagner’s Ring cycle for the Metropolitan Opera, among other projects - called Lepage an “insightful, very theatrical director.” With Totem, Cirque producers wanted a touring work that showcased the troupe’s acrobatic skills but also capitalized on Lepage’s international experience in staging plays, operas, musicals, multimedia productions and mega. Totem has drawn 2.5 million people to date. The two-act production was written and is directed by French Canadian Robert Lepage, who created the $164million Cirque show Ka, seen by more than 1 million people since opening in 2004 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. “The dream of man is to fly someday, so people get very high in the air, like cosmonauts or astronauts, in the last acrobatic act.” “From water and life, you have the first cells, and the first ones to come up were the amphibians - so that’s the beginning of evolution,” Vignola said.Īll the acrobatic acts, he said, were chosen and choreographed to reflect a progression - from crawling to walking to running to jumping and flying. The title refers to monumental totems carved from trees by Pacific Northwest Indians, with “ different animals built one on top of the other,” said Neilson Vignola, the show’s director of creation. Totem, launched in 2010 in Montreal, encompasses 46 international acrobats, actors, singers and musicians who metaphorically trace the evolution of the human species. “People are much closer to the action in a big-top show.” “We’re expecting Totem to be as popular as Corteo was six years ago,” publicist Francis Jalbert said. The last Cirque big-top production in Columbus - Corteo in 2007 - drew more than 61,000 people, giving the Totem presenters high hopes this time around, too.
Totem - the acrobatic franchise’s touring depiction of evolution - will open on Thursday for a multiweek run under the blue-and-yellow tent pitched at the Ohio Expo Center
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