It's a wonder Gilles Maheu doesn't look more tired. For two years, the Quebecois performer and director has lived, breathed and dreamed Zaia, the resident show he created for Cirque du Soleil at the Venetian Macao.
Just weeks before tonight's gala opening, he was still tweaking the production. 'We were up until the wee hours trying to shave off one minute from an act. It took us a whole afternoon to cut 30 seconds,' says Maheu, sighing.
That's just the nature of the beast. Zaia is the first outing with the Montreal-based entertainment empire for Maheu, whose brand of avant-garde theatre and visual poetry has helped define Quebec performance art. He has known Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte since they were both teenage street performers, and was delighted to take on a new challenge when the company invited him to put together a new production.
It didn't take long for Maheu to decide on the basic concept - a journey into space.
'Going into space means dreams are possible,' he says. 'The circus is always working with the idea of weightlessness, with the notion that people want to fly.'
An illustrated postcard of a child on a faraway planet looking down at Earth provided the inspiration for the storyline: a young girl, Zaia, who travels around the world and into space, but ultimately returns with a greater appreciation of the Earth's beauty and the need for harmony.
