“Echo,” the first original Cirque du Soleil show created since the pandemic began, is coming to Atlantic Station Nov. 5 and will run through January 2024.
Directed by Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar the new show created by British artist Es Devlin blends poetry, stagecraft, acrobatics and fresh technologies to explore the balance between humans, animals and the world.
The show was originally supposed to debut in Montreal in 2020 but the pandemic shut it down. Devlin, originally set to be the director, has since been replaced by Mukhtar, a performer at the Vegas Beatles Cirque show “Love” from 2005 to 2013.
The show has since been revamped to reflect the post-pandemic world we live in.
Credit: CIRQUE DU SO
Credit: CIRQUE DU SO
“We want to celebrate the idea of working together to create the world we want to live in,” Mukhtar said in a Zoom interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from Montreal, where he is preparing the show with 40 performers who hail from at least 18 different countries. “We really need positive energy right now. The idea of the Big Top is sharing a special moment, to share emotions in a communal setting.”
Devlin’s influence remains, especially in the set design. Known for creating large-scale public art works and stage sculptures that combine light, music and language, Devlin helped produce the 2022 Super Bowl half-time show and Adele’s Griffith Observatory special on CBS.
“Her contemporary approach to her installations, her artistic direction, we’ve been inspired by her to make our creative decisions,” Mukhtar said. “There are going to be a few surprises we’ve never done in a Big Top before.”
Mukhtar is currently nurturing brand new acts for “Echo” who are spending five to six months in preparation before the official launch in Montreal in late April. “There are disciplines we are creating from scratch,” he said.
The show will be centered, he said, around a focal two-story visual element: “It’s the heart and narrative of the show and is used as a projection surface and an acrobatic performance structure. It can also be constructed and deconstructed throughout the show. This will give the audience a wow.”
“Echo” will be in Montreal for six months, move to D.C. in the fall, then spend almost three months in Atlanta starting in early November. (Tickets for Atlanta go on sale Feb. 7.)
Cirque has been a worldwide phenomenon for three decades with 50 different shows over the years, including multiple shows in Las Vegas at any given time. In recent years, they have built a circus Big Top at Atlantic Station for extended runs, the most recent being “Kurios” this past fall.
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