Through the Carousel

On his deathbed, Ludovico entrusts his daughter Margot to the housekeeper, Felicia, asking that the family villa be transformed into an orphanage so that the little girl can grow up in joy with other children. But the wicked Felicia only wants the little girl's assets and not take care of her. With the complicity of her suitor, Max, she exploits the orphaned children and keeps Margot segregated and neglected to the point that the child withdraws into herself and no longer speaks. One night, however, Margot manages to escape and, after overcoming the darkness of the woods, she comes across a circus.

A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.

In a small American town, a diabolical circus arrives, granting wishes for the townsfolk, but twisted as only the esteemed Mr. Dark can make them. Can two young boys overcome the worst the devil himself can deal out?

Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.

A magician in a carnival--who actually can read minds and levitate people and objects--works with a superintelligent chimp named Alex, who can also talk. The magician and the chimp soon become the stars of the carnival, drawing in big crowds. However, the wild-animal trainer, who has been displaced by the team as the carnival's top act, decides to kidnap Alex and sell him to a medical laboratory for experimentation, thereby getting rid of his competition.

When 17-year-old Abigail stumbles upon her old piano, painful memories of her late father resurface. But when a mysterious entity tries to stop her from playing, she must make a difficult choice: continue avoiding the pain - or confront it head-on.

After a carnival troupe saves his life, a man agrees to help its immortal leader collect five souls and win a bet with the devil.

When the gentle woodcarver Geppetto builds a marionette to be his substitute son, a benevolent fairy brings the toy to life. The puppet, named Pinocchio, is not yet a human boy. He must earn the right to be real by proving that he is brave, truthful, and unselfish.

A circus owner and a lady trapper trek into the African jungle to capture a giant gorilla for his circus.

An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.

Recently orphaned, a young boy is taken in by his godmother who is shocked to realize that she can see the boy's imaginary friend: a flamboyant, French magician named Bogus.

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Zarkana is a Cirque du Soleil stage production written and directed by François Girard. It began as a touring show in 2011 and was converted to a permanent show in Las Vegas in late 2012. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 29, 2011 and later toured to the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow and the Madrid Arena in Madrid. Following Zarkana's successful run in Moscow, it was announced that the show would start residency at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The show replaced the Cirque du Soleil resident production Viva Elvis, which closed in August 2012 at the Aria Resort. Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil is about a spirited journey through an abandoned theater where an extraordinary circus comes back to life. Populated by a motley collection of off-the-wall characters and incomparable acrobats, Zarkana is a visual vortex set in a twisted acrobatic fantasy universe where, little by little, chaos and craziness give way to a true celebration.

Overcoming bullies and his own loser mentality, 10-year-old Bernie Dingledorf must destroy Dr. Chuckles’s diabolical Laugh Generator before it sends the world into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.

Live performance, Bayerische Staatsoper, 2011. The Tales of Hoffmann (French: LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN) is an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach that combines three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann into a haunting whole: a melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer. One of the questions this opera poses for any director is how to link the 'tales' of Hoffmann's three lost loves together and knit them satisfactorily into the Prologue and Epilogue. In this production, Richard Jones solves the puzzle by turning it into an autobiographical journey which ends with a grand meet-up of all the characters Hoffmann has encountered: for once, Hoffmann is not presented as a rollicking kind of drunken story-spinner, but rather a sad-eyed, sobered-up depressive, who reaches for the bottle only because his disastrous love life has gone wrong yet again.