Returning to Chicago for the first time since 2014, FLIP Fabrique takes the Harris stage with their newest production, BLIZZARD, which explores the Canadian company’s intimate relationship to winter. Surrounded by a totally white room, eight performers contemplate the possibilities of a blank space before launching into a flurry of acrobatic maneuvers — acro, yo-yo, hula-hoop, aerial, trampo-wall, diabolo, clowning, and even more of their own invention. In the production’s unique twist, an onstage pianist accompanies the troupe’s dizzying display, playing in counterpoint and revealing the piano as a circus apparatus in its own right.
Quebec-based circus troupe FLIP Fabrique creates original and dazzling stage works celebrating the art and joy of the circus. The company, founded by seven recent graduates of the École de Cirque de Québec in 2011, has toured internationally, playing New York, Amsterdam, São Paulo, Paris, and Athens. Renowned for “acts that don’t seem humanly possible” (New York Times) and their “wacky, energetic, and heartfelt” aesthetic (Not Without My Bowler Hat), FLIP Fabrique delights and astounds with their thoroughly 21st-century vision of what circus can be.
The Exelon Family Series offers high-quality, engaging programming designed to cultivate the next generation of arts lovers. These hour-long performances are designed for children ages 4-12. Children will have the opportunity to meet and interact with artists following the performance. And as always, audiences are encouraged to laugh, clap, and experience the theater in their own way — no shushing allowed!
