If you could close your eyes and imagine the quintessential Canadian winter, it would likely look a lot like FLIP Fabrique’s Blizzard.
The immensely talented Quebec circus troupe brings that imagined season to life on stage with music, humour and thrilling acrobatics, packaged into a magical performance coming to the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Feb. 24.
Showcasing performers at the peak of their art, Blizzard pays homage to Québec winters, with joyous vignettes sharing the beauty of winter. From snowball fights to snow days, audiences take a crazy, poetic and gentle journey into the heart of winter – an invitation to lose ourselves in a moment of complete wonder.
”Blizzard shows all the funny and silly things that happen during winter, with a great dose of French Canadian humour, but then there’s the live music element and the excellence in the athleticism of the show,” says Erin Kennedy, Artistic Director at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre.
Blizzard also offers a unique opportunity for Vernon. While a variety of different circus performances have enthralled audiences, this is the first time a trampoline circus has been featured, Kennedy notes.
As with each new show, the FLIP Fabrique family created Blizzard together – first contemplating a performance about seasons, before landing on winter, specifically, says Bruno Gagnon, FLIP Fabrique’s general and artistic director.
“I’m very proud of this show. We have put so much emphasis on the set and the effects, but at the end of the day, it’s very simple and people relate very quickly to that – you can imagine what it’s like to be in winter.”
At the heart of Canadian culture, winter offers a whole host of shared experiences, from the excitement of a “snow day” to the transformative magic of a snowfall. Speaking from Quebec City, “it’s a whole other city when it’s covered in snow,” Gagnon reflects.
A multi-faceted show for children and adults alike, an audience-favourite segment is the “Roi de la Montagne,” or King of the Mountain, depicting adventures atop a snow mountain, performed on a 40-foot-long air track. “It’s very fun and acrobatic,” Gagnon says.
While FLIP Fabrique’s trademark is acrobatics using a trampoline wall, they embraced an added challenge for this show, doing the trampo-wall act without the wall. “This is scary, but it’s exactly where we wanted to bring it, to have this very good-looking – though dangerous – act of the tramp without a wall,” Gagnon says.
Together, Blizzard “is super poetic and brings us memories of when we were children…and you can kind of understand the feeling of being a Canadian in -30°C weather,” he says. “So we have this first layer that’s so acrobatic, then the layers that make your thoughts go to your childhood, and the layers that make you think about what it is to be in the winter.”
Recommended for ages 6+, tickets for Blizzard are $50 for adults; $47 for seniors and $45 for students. Learn more and purchase tickets here.