From high-flying acrobatic birds to giant robots made of plastic waste, Cirque du Soleil’s ECHO delivers a show full of memorable moments and spectacle. After intermission, a lone figure surrounded by fog with antlers upon her pate stands centre-stage and beckons audiences into the second half of the circus with a cello solo.
This is Lizzy Munson, whose enchanting cello and singing performance will be especially meaningful when the circus comes to Calgary — because she’ll be doing it in her hometown. “I think Calgary is very arts-focused,” says Munson. “I think there is a lot of creativity there that I haven’t found in other cities.”
She would know better than most. Munson has spent most of her career touring the world performing, from stints with Michael Bublé in 2014 and 2022 to Cirque’s Vegas show KÀ in 2016 and Saudi Arabian show Fuzion in 2022. But her musical journey started right here in Cowtown.
“For as long as I can remember, I was singing all the time to [artists like] Shania Twain and dancing around,” she says. “I joined a musical theatre training group that was called Stage Struck when I was five years old. And about the same time, I fell in love with the cello.
“Morag Northey came to my kindergarten class to play for us, and it was the most amazing thing. I’ve studied with her my entire life, sung my entire life, and joined the Young Canadians from ages 14 to 19.” She also studied at the Mount Royal Conservatory and continues to teach both voice and cello.
The poetry of Cirque’s location isn’t lost on Munson. “Being a young Canadian, I grew up training on the Stampede Grounds, so to come back and perform on those same grounds … It’s really special,” she says. “I created this role; I had a say in what I sing [and] what I play. It feels very close to me, and I get to bring that to Calgary, which is really fun.”
Cirque crafts its shows in an extremely collaborative fashion. For months, creators and acrobats — led by writer/director Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar and creation director Chantal Tremblay — created the high-flying acts and abstract storytelling of ECHO. Just as the tricks and story were coming together, the composers and musicians began creating the soundtrack.
“The creation process was so intense,” she says. “We could all sing each other’s parts.”
This is also when Munson formed her character, one of seven black-clad musicians who weave in and out of the action, scoring the show and singing the haunting vocal melodies.
“We are the storytellers of the show,” she says. “I wouldn’t say we’re physically there, but we are a little bit ominous. We’re warning the characters of what will happen, while also being there for them in a nurturing way.”
Nearly all of the performers onstage don elaborate animal masks, embodying different creatures and aspects of life. Munson’s animal is a deer.
“There is a movement aspect,” she explains. “The deer aspect is very alert, looking at different things and telling the story. We have the big antlers, so we feel [that] our energy extends way higher than us. It creates a different way of moving.”
She — along with every other performer in ECHO — applies her own makeup before every show, transforming into an ethereal human-deer hybrid with angular lines painted in black ash.
“All of my friends and family members who have come to see ECHO get a different message,” says Munson. “A lot of people leave very inspired; different people have a different concept of what the story actually is. And basically, it’s a young woman’s journey discovering herself through this new universe, the ECHO universe.”
A piece of Calgary lives in this show. And you’ll have to see it yourself to find out what that means.
Catch ECHO in that giant tent at the Stampede grounds until October 19. Grab tickets at cirquedusoleil.com.
