Right from the start, it’s obvious that this will be no ordinary night out at the circus. As the curtain comes up on the first act of Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo, it reveals a distinctly gloomy tableau: an old clown lies on what looks to be his deathbed while his friends and colleagues come by to pay their respects. The sombre scene is intentionally ambiguous, though. The audience isn’t told whether the clown (played by Pierre-Philippe Guay) is actually dying. Perhaps he has already passed on, and we are witnessing his funeral. Perhaps he’s dreaming the whole thing, or maybe we are.

The gothic atmosphere doesn’t last long, however. As with all Cirque du Soleil presentations, the storyline of Corteo (which was created in collaboration with Swiss theatre artist Daniele Finzi Pasca) is mostly a framing device for a series of truly spectacular displays of acrobatic virtuosity. The funeral scene, for instance, gives way to an elegant but dizzying aerial act on spinning chandeliers. This, in turn, is followed by an exuberant but precisely timed trampoline segment in which six performers bounce and tumble around a pair of rotating beds like so many sugar-crazed moppets. Other skills on offer include juggling, tightwire walking, and a rapid-fire horizontal-bar routine.

Interviewed backstage during the show’s recent run in Redmond, Washington, Corteo general manager Heather Reilly told the Straight that the plot of the show—which opens at Concord Pacific Place next Thursday (June 12) and runs through July 20—is intentionally minimal. In other Cirque presentations, she admitted, the storylines have been hard to keep straight while dazzling and seemingly unconnected performances stream past.

“Every audience member is going to take something different away,” Reilly said. “I think what is appealing about this is that it’s such a universal story that people understand, versus some of the others, where people walk out and they’re like, ‘Okay, they told me there was a story, but I don’t get it.’ ”

Corteo differs from other Cirque du Soleil shows in several other significant ways. All the action takes place on a stage that runs through the centre of the big top, or grand chapiteau in Cirque-speak. The audience is thus divided into two sections, with performers essentially parading between them. (Appropriately, the show’s title is Italian for cortège, or “procession”.). Dominique Lemieux’s costume designs utilize natural fibres in subdued colours, many dyed or airbrushed to imbue them with a patina of age. Finished with the subtlest of makeup, the look evokes everyday Europe circa 1900 rather than the impossible worlds conjured by the garish ensembles and full face paint of productions such as Kooza and Varekai.

The naturalistic design gives Corteo a very human feel, and enhances the audience’s empathy for the clown. Because we can see his face and read his expressions, we can’t help but care about his fate. As for how the show ends, let’s just say that Finzi Pasca hasn’t provided any easy answers. “It’s left up to each audience member to interpret—the end as well as the show—because as he’s flying off towards the light, we don’t know what’s happening,” Reilly noted. “There’s no definitive end to the show. Is he going to wake up? Is the dream over?”

For local Cirque du Soleil fans, the dream is just about to begin.