April 22, 2019 By Meghan Sackman
Cirque du Soleil will be coming to Citi Field this Friday to set up its white and gold Big Top tent in preparation for next week’s New York premiere of LUZIA, a waking dream of Mexico.
The show, with tickets available for purchase starting at $54, will run from May 3 to June 9 and will feature contemporary acrobatic performances that aim to transport the audience to a fantastical version of Mexico that lies somewhere between dream and reality.
Luzia, a combination of the Spanish words for light (luz) and rain (lluvia), contains multiple sets including an old movie set, the ocean, a desert, and others to combine both traditional and modern elements of Mexico.
The element of rain has been incorporated into the performance, a first for a tour performance by Cirque Du Soleil, and allows audience members to witness wheel artists spin in the rain and aerialists swing from a trapeze in torrential downpours.
Luzia, Cirque du Soleil’s 38th original production that premiered in April 2016, aims to embody Mexico’s beauty in an abstract–yet not cliché–way.
“LUZIA invites audiences to escape on a surrealistic journey through a sumptuous and vibrant world suspended somewhere between dreams and reality,” the performance group wrote about the show in a press release.
“LUZIA cleverly brings to the stage multiple places, faces and sounds of Mexico taken from both tradition and modernity.”
Notable elements of the show, written and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, in association with Brigitte Poupart, include hoop diving using giant treadmills to increase speed, a rain curtain for acrobat to spin through, and a male contortionist.
The Big Top tent, which seats more than 2,600 people, stands 62 feet high, has a 167 foot diameter, and takes 8 days to set up.
The process to put up the electrically-self- sustaining tent, where 45 artists from 19 different countries will perform, begins Friday at 1 p.m.
To watch a preview of LUZIA, by the Quebec based organization that was founded in 1984, click here.