Timber! is loosely based on the daily life of a lumberjack and was a part of the Ohio University Performing Arts and Concert Series.
Audience members were left on the edge of their seats as the Cirque Alfonse troupe juggled axes, logrolled and performed extreme tricks on a see-saw in its Timber! show Wednesday night at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.
Timber! is loosely based on the daily life of a lumberjack and was a part of the Ohio University Performing Arts and Concert Series. Cirque Alfonse is a circus company out of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez in Quebec, Canada. Antoine Carabinier-Lépine, an acrobat and co-producer, said the show is modeled after his family’s history of being lumberjacks.
“I thought the show was great. It was a lot better than I expected it to be,” David Dabelko, an Athens resident and retired Ohio University political science professor, said. “It had a lot more variety and athleticism than I anticipated. It must have taken a lot of upper body strength to do that.”
One act even included a thin log and three acrobats, where one of the actors balanced on top and performed stunts, such as flips, twists and handstands.
Members of the crew included acrobats Carabinier-Lépine, Jonathan Casaubon and Francis Roberge, all of whom performed balancing stunts on logs that tested their strength.
“You have to admire their agility and strength and their ability to work with one another,” Mike Ward, an Athens resident and retired judge, said. “I really didn’t know what to expect. We just came to see what it was all about.”
Banjos, guitars, percussion, harmonicas and vocals accompanied the actors. The music, which was folk-rock in nature, played along with the lumberjack theme.
“The music was very lively and fun,” Barbara Ward, an Athens resident, said.
Alain Carabinier, who played the old camp director in the show, was a crowd favorite as he delivered most of the comedic elements in the show.
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“A lot of it was French-Canadian humor. I always wonder how much is going to be lost by the audience,” Andrew Holzaepfel, senior associate director of the Campus Involvement Center, said. “But my favorite part of the show is when they use the long, skinny log as as balance beam and do stunts. I think it’s amazing that they can do that.”
Unlike most cirque shows, the costumes and sets were simple and related to the theme of the show. All of the equipment was made from items that could be found on a lumberjack camp.
“I love their approach to the cirque as an artform,” Holzaepfel said. “I think they did a really unique thing of it.”
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