Life happens in the kitchen.
In Cuisine & Confessions, the stage becomes a giant kitchen where late-night confessionals over tea and a jar of Nutella quickly turn into elaborately choreographed family meals.
Presented by an off-shoot of Cirque du Soleil out of Montreal, The Seven Fingers Circus will show their culinary and acrobatic prowess at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.
“The circus performers will recreate stories while cooking actual meals and offering them up to the audience,” said Erin Kennedy, artistic director with the Vernon PAC.
Combining circus, avant-garde dance, theatre, and cooking show comedy, The Seven Fingers pays homage to the iconic comforts of the kitchen.
Secrets are exchanged, lessons learned, and bonds forged, reinforced by our most visceral of senses: taste.
Accompanying their eye-popping flight of acrobatic choreography and pulsating music are the other three senses: the touch of hands in batter, the smell of baking, and the taste of roasted oregano.
Each of the performers has his/her moment in the spotlight, leading the audience through personal stories.
Directors Shana Carroll and Sébastien Soldevila wrote the show by mining true stories from the cast members’ lives and weaving together snippets of narratives and themes.
The performers buzzed nearby, grated cheese, broke eggs, chopped and stirred – and occasionally jumped in with supporting moves.
The seven founding directors of Seven Fingers began the company in 2002 with the goal of creating what they called “circus at a human scale.”
Their shows are steeped in intimacy and familiarity, with real human beings who breathe, dance and speak from the heart.
From this, the urge to redefine the circus medium has continued to drive each of their creations to newer, more hybrid and collaborative territories.
The Seven Fingers’ immersive and interactive experiences perpetually blur the lines between contemporary dance, acrobatics, theatre and athleticism. They strive towards creating groundbreaking, exciting, visceral, breathtaking and touchingly human experiences.
Cuisine & Confessions is no exception.
“This circus show will leave you touched and amazed by human stories and movement, your belly full, and your senses invigorated. Come for the circus, stay for the banana bread,” said Kennedy.
Tickets for Cuisine & Confessions are $45 for adults, $42 for seniors and $40 for students. Call the Ticket Seller at 250-549-SHOW (7469) or visit www.ticketseller.ca for tickets and more information.
