Cirque du Soleil’s New Show Entertained Crowds At The Pepsi Center
by Megan Carthel
From Montreal to America, July 20 marked the one-year anniversary of the new Cirque du Soleil show TORUK — The First Flight, which is based on James Cameron’s 2009 movie Avatar. Avatar grossed $2.7 billion worldwide making it the 
largest grossing movie of all time.
TORUK is a multimedia spectacle that takes place thousands of years before the events of Avatar and before any humans visited Pandora. Led by a storyteller character, the show follows three young adults — Ralu, Entu, and Tsyal — and tells the story of the first flight of the Toruk (the dragons they rode in the movie).
One of the puppeteers who controls Toruk during the show is Nick Barlow, from Australia, who just finished his first year as a Cirque performer.
“It’s very exciting,” Barlow said, “It’s definitely the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of. It’s so amazing to go out every night with thousands of
people there just really excited to see the show.”
While Barlow certainly loves his job and puppeteering, it wasn’t always his intention to become a puppeteer. While in school in Australia, he studied theater and “fell” into puppetry — the rest has been history ever since. Before Cirque, he was a puppeteer on the Australian tour of War Horse and worked as a physical performer with Polyglot Theatre.
“That wasn’t my intention, I just fell into it and found that I loved it. Especially the fact that you can play so many different things as a puppeteer,” Barlow said. “As an actor, you’re often typecast by your look and your age, so as a puppeteer you can play a whole matter of stuff.”
In the show he handles five puppets including the Viperwolves; the Direhorses; his personal favorite, the Ostripeed, a pink bird designed specifically for the show; and the main puppet, Toruk, which takes all six puppeteers to maneuver. The Toruk puppet is the largest on set weighing in at 240 pounds with an aluminum frame and a carbon fiber covering. Luckily for the puppeteers, the movement of the creature is automated, but they bring it to life. While six minds work at once, a puppet becomes an animal on Pandora.
“We all have to kind of think and breathe as one to make that creature come alive,” Barlow said. “By now, we’re just in tune with each other. We can feel when it’s going to go this way or that way or move together at the same time, which kind of creates that idea that it’s one big idea, not just six different thoughts going on.”
The puppeteers also have a crucial part of the show — playing Eywa, the spirit of the Na’vi. Dressed in black their character represents the shadow of the Na’vi clan that brings life to the planet of Pandora — a symbolic metaphor for the job of a puppeteer.
“As that spirit, we also have other jobs in the show of bringing life to other parts of the set,” Barlow said. “Or, being that spirit presence in the space, which is ki
nd of part of the story — this connection to the spirit world of Pandora.”
It takes a lot of time and energy to bring the world of Pandora to life. Each week the cast and crew travel to a new city, setting up the stage on Wednesdays. Shows run until Sunday, with double features on the weekends. Before each show, performers stretch, warm up in their traveling gym, and rehearse different parts and new moves.
“The show isn’t ever completely locked down,” Barlow said. “We’re always trying to make things better and add things here, add things there, and tighten things up.”
The performers all do their own makeup, which takes about an hour. For puppeteers, sound checks and mics are an additional preparation as they make all of the animal sounds and noises audiences hear. Then after the last show Sunday night, the crews pack up the stage and it’s immediately on the road again with Monday and Tuesday off in a new city.
“It’s hectic, but it’s interesting and you see a lot of America,” Barlow said.
This is Barlow’s second time in the U.S. after touring with another show, and his first time in Denver. During his days off, he was able to get a bike and ride along the Platte River, exploring what he could. The Mile High City’s elevation and thinner air affects the performers running around the stage and some props that have to fly in the air.
The cast and crew travel, work and live together the entire tour, creating a type of family for the performers away from home, but Barlow still misses his own family in Australia.
“It’s a really close-knit group, which makes life on the road a lot easier because it’s hard,” Barlow said. “I’ve got a real family back home in Australia. That’s the hard part of touring is being away from them.”
“The people who work for Cirque du Soleil are in general very like-minded individuals, the cast, crew, staff, everyone,” said Laura Silverman, Publicist, Cirque du Soleil, TORUK — The First Flight. “They obviously have a passion for entertainment, creativity, [and] travel. And this show specifically, everyone on the show, the cast and crew is really extraordinary. Everyone gets along really well and they all have the passion to put on the best show possible.”
To put on a great show, the venue and stage need to meet the needs of the artists. Just as the world of Pandora is large, so is the stage. Toruk — The First Flight stage is the largest ever to be used in a Cirque show. The entire arena is used as the stage, giving all the performers a huge space to work with. In all, Toruk — The First Flight is a unique Cirque show unlike any other, with a larger stage, a narrator and storyline a
nd more technological displays than acrobatic.
Cirque, which is known for acrobatics, has received mixed reviews from critics in the cities it has performed in since it debuted in December 2015. Recognizing that fans have come to expect acrobatics in cirque shows, there have been changes over the last six months.
“We do the best we can to manage expectations in advance,” said Silverman. “The show has evolved. All cirque shows are constantly evolving because we tour with an artistic director and his job is to make sure that it’s relevant and looks the best and we take what we learn from different audiences. So this show has more acrobatics in it now than it did six months ago.”
“We have 18 shows performing around the world right now,” said Silverman. “[This show] is the biggest departure from what the company was built on. But each show of those 18 is going to stand out from the others.”
TORUK — The First Flight had a successful run in Denver, adding a matinee performance on Friday, July 22. “Denver has proven to be a really great market for Cirque du Soleil and we will continue to come here,” said Silverman.
The show heads to four different cities in August: Chicago, Indianapolis, Birmingham and Nashville. For a complete listing, visit www.cirquedusoleil.com/toruk /tour-dates.