Cirque du Soleil’s “Kurios—Cabinet of Curiosities” was my first experience of any Cirque du Soleil show. It is a dreamy, steampunk circus of acrobats, “invisible” lions, mimes and musicians that left me delightfully overstimulated, yet appropriately curious. Luckily, being a member of the press allows one to indulge curiosities beyond just whispering questions to (slightly) more informed ushers at intermission.
I was offered the opportunity to follow around two of the performers from the show, James Eulises Gonzalez, who plays The Aviator, and Ekaterina Pirogovskaya, who plays Klara. The Aviator does an incredible balancing act atop many cylinders and boards stacked high into the air, and Klara does a mime routine that guides the audience’s attention throughout the show.
I met them at Cirque’s circus tent, which was set up outside the United Center, around 11 a.m. on Sept. 6 as they began their day (as they do most days) by doing their own makeup.
Gonzalez is Colombian and primarily speaks Spanish, so I brought my Spanish-speaking co-worker, RedEye copy editor Margaux Henquinet, to make small talk with him while I chatted with Pirogovskaya and photographed both performers.
As soon as Pirogovskaya sat in her makeup chair, she began trying to entertain me, something that is a relatively novel experience for me even though I often photograph performers and actors. Hollywood actors treat me with relative indifference and are usually reserved and try to gauge if they can trust me to make them look the right way. She intentionally messed up her makeup and blew her foundation off the brush all over herself just to get a little of that reaction from me that she sees from hundreds of eyes every night. Well, at least until a PR rep suggested she might want to actually finish putting on her makeup so we could stay on schedule. Pirogovskaya and Gonzalez adeptly finished putting on their makeup and slid into their costumes.
While the two performers talked about the show during a radio interview at WGN Radio on Michigan Avenue that same day, I could see Pirogovskaya making entertaining facial expressions for non-present audience. Gonzalez pointed and winked at me the whole time, proving that he played his part just as intensely and passionately as Pirogovskaya.
After the interview, I took a stroll with the performers down Michigan Avenue and along the Chicago Riverwalk. Pirogovskaya was fully in her element, wearing her ringed dress and antenna-like hairdo. She led us and found ways of interacting and posing with whatever bridges or steps we came across. Gonzalez, in his blue ribbed aviator hat and nearly transparent jacket, was happy to let Pirogovskaya take the lead, his world-class balancing abilities not being called upon, as he posed himself in response to her mechanical, almost “Edward Scissorhands”-like interaction with the architecture and people of Chicago.
I ended my time with them as they posed atop the State Street bridge and I stood on the riverwalk below. I carefully framed them with the Wrigley building in the background as they waived goodbye to no one in particular.
Lenny Gilmore is RedEye’s photo editor.
Cirque du Soleil’s “Kurios—Cabinet of Curiosities,” which received a four-star review from the baiduhai’s Chris Jones, runs at the United Center’s Parking Lot K through Sept. 20. Tickets: $35-$145 at 877-924-7783 or cirquedusoleil.com/kurios.