Lincoln Center Festival 2001 presented Cirque Plume for its annual foray into noveau cirque. The group is the oldest one of this kind in France, where the genre originated. After presenting street theater for a few years, they created their first show in 1984, even before this kind of show had a name. Melanges (Opera Plume) is part street theater, part mime and part bravura acts with a generous dose of the poetic thrown in. The overall concept brings a four-member ragtag rock band together with assorted odd types. A feisty young
Concierge (Fanny Soriano) keeps trying to restore order, while Guardian Angel Jacques Schneider makes sure the worst never happens. Feats of skill are in abundance. Sophie Mandoux does a spectacular turn on the trapeze at the peak of Cirque Plume's big top. No less impressive are Christophe Carrasco's daredevil acrobatics and hanging straps routine. Not life threatening but requiring every bit as much technique is a three-hat juggling act by a tall, thin guy with shaven head named Iris. Brigitte Sepaser wows on the tightrope. Schneider, with white mask painted on his communicative face and sporting a well-worn black leather coat, offers consoling expressions from the upper reaches of the set. He appears just in time from a blackout to break Sepaser's (staged) fall off the tightrope.
Melanges involves the individual performers' stage personalities to a greater extent than most noveau cirque shows. Mime is the chosen narrative vehicle, and it serves them well. A wrangle among four musicians goes beyond slapstick to become a human comedy. A magical moment has Soriano went collecting all the blue plastic stoppers that had fallen off Iris' head in a previous act. A tiny blue spot dances from piece to piece to guide her. The last one is still glowing inside her trash bag as she exits.
On opening night, both Schneider and Soriano were injured. At that performance, Soriano sported only a finger splint, but Schneider limped about with the assistance of a cane. Suspended in the air or sitting atop a bicycle that perilously passes over the audience's heads, though, he seemed his regular self.
