July 31-August 6, 2003

mixpicks

Smythe & Saucier present Circo Comedia

Even for mime masters who've honed the art of silence, it helps to speak two languages. Circo Comedia, which arrives at the DuPont Theatre tonight, is the joint production by Laurence Smythe and his Montreal-born balancing partner Jean Saucier, who together have put a new spin on the tradition of Quebec circus. Fielding an altogether more audacious approach to spectacle than the more familiar three-ring circus, Smythe and Saucier defy gravity with levity: Precarious stunts are brought almost to disaster by classic slapstick. The show, which concludes the Dupont's first annual Summer Family Series, may bear visual resemblance to Cirque du Soleil -- a company with which both performers have done stints -- but where Cirque gleefully lets go of the plot's reins as the centrifugal forces get spinning, Circo feels more like a touching study in an antagonistic pair who fail to screw up in spite of their best efforts.

Smythe & Saucier present Circo Comedia, Thu., July 31, 7 p.m., $7-$12, DuPont Theatre at the Hotel du Pont, Wilmington, Del., 302-656-4401.

—Juliet Fletcher