This week­end will be your last chance to catch Mon­tréal Com­plète­ment Cirque, which is a newish cir­cus fes­ti­val that got added to Montreal’s ros­ter of fes­ti­vals a few years ago. It’s loads of fun and a great addi­tion to the sum­mer fes­ti­vals in Mon­treal. I was lucky enough to see a few shows and I can tell you that there’s some­thing for every­one. There’s both free out­door shows as well as paid indoor shows. Last week I saw the indoor show Smashed Gan­dini Jug­gling which was a fab­u­lously whim­si­cal jug­gling per­for­mance by a team of British apple jug­glers wear­ing suits. It starts off com­pletely whole­some and gets slightly less whole­some through­out the rest of the jug­gling show (but remains whole­some enough for kids).

Last night I saw Pro­pa­ganda at Usine C and they were less than whole­some. It’s an eccen­tric 2 per­son acrobatic-theatrical show with female acro­bat Jo-Ann Lan­caster being top­less for about half the show. There’s skits, tits, trapeze, rope swing­ing, themes of servi­tude along with some cool fetishy out­fits, all served up in a dimly lit set with harsh light­ing. The audi­ence enjoyed it big time but I didn’t get it or find it very excit­ing. This week S Circa seems to be get­ting lots of buzz; I didn’t get to see them yet but Mon­treal Cuture guy Zeke reviewed them here.

Free out­door shows are a great way to soak up the cir­cusy zeit­geist and I got to see TOUR DE PISTE AU QUARTIER DES SPECTACLES: BABEL last week at the cor­ner of St. Hubert and Ste. Cather­ine. About 25 acro­batic per­form­ers jump, dance, strut, swing, bal­ance, tram­po­line, uni­cy­cle, and flip all around a few sto­ries of scaf­fold­ing in Place Emi­lie Gamelin. Fun stuff for the whole fam­ily and still going on for the rest of the week.

Babel — Place Emi­lie Gamelin– Mon­tréal Com­plète­ment Cirque

Smashed Gan­dini Jug­gling — Mon­tréal Com­plète­ment Cirque

Smashed Gan­dini Jug­gling — Mon­tréal Com­plète­ment Cirque