Head to Dayton’s Nutter Center this weekend to see Cirque du Soleil‘s classic show, Quidam. The show, at the time a big top production, spent several weeks in Cincinnati in August and September 2006 in a “grand chapiteau” on the Ohio River bank near the Suspension Bridge. It’s the story of a bored kid named Zoé whose parents ignore her. We enter the world of her imagination when Quidam, a headless wanderer under an umbrella, hands her his blue bowler hat. As her self-absorbed parents float away, the story moves into the magical reality her imagination, populated by Cirque‘s physically astonishing performers. There’s a “German Wheel,” a pair of man-sized double hoops with a guy rolling around the stage; an amazing silk contortionist, high above the stage); and “Statue,” a mesmerizing performance by a muscle-bound guy and a powerful woman who slowly balance in various positions. My favorite was Banquine, the finale by 15 acrobats, launching tumblers high into the air and catching them. Through Sunday. Tickets: cirquedusoleil.com
Other productions to consider for your theater calendar this weekend: The Odd Couple (just opened on the Showboat Majestic, 513-241-6550); The Hound of the Baskervilles (Cincinnati Shakespeare, 513-381-2273), Nunsense (Commonwealth Dinner Theatre at Northern Kentucky University, 859-572-5465) and, if you’re looking to make a theater weekend in Dayton with Quidam on one evening, how about filling the other with the outrageously funny X-rated Sesame Street-inspired Avenue Q at Human Race Theatre Company (888-228-3630).
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2013.
