On Saturday, Oct. 26, The Palace Theatre will be transformed into an interactive wonderland, themed around the darkness of the circus, and the transgressiveness that comes from not everything being as it seems.

Odditorium is Le Cirque de la Nuit’s spooky season performance, although not necessarily Halloween-focused, that invites audience members into being performance participants themselves.

On the main stage, or the side stages, Cirque performers will be bringing their acts, music, or interactive art to attendees who are themselves invited and encouraged to dress up for the occasion in costume.

“It’s a music event, immersive theater, and super fun. It’s really for the adult crowd who likes to go out have a good time, listen to some cool DJs, do some dancing, and see some amazing circus acts,” said Andrew G. Cooper, Le Cirque de la Nuit’s Theatrical Director.

“The reason why it’s called Odditorium is because it’s a performance dressed up in weird costumes and has interesting and strange characters, creatures and toys come to life… and then we always encourage the audiences, the patrons, to do the same.”

The result has been for three years running now one of the most unique experiences that can be found in Calgary’s theatre scene, Cooper said.

His work as the company’s theatrical director has really brought up the performance aspect of this year’s Odditorium, he said.

The troupe has created what they are calling the haunted grove, which is bringing more interactive theatre off the main stage for attendees.

Cooper said that the biggest change that past attendees to Odditorium would find is an expanded roster of performers and more variety of performances.

“We have an acrobat duo from Montreal who do unicycle acrobatics, which is just incredible. So it’s just like two-person acrobatics. One of them is on a unicycle, which is like the most incredible thing you’ve ever seen,” Cooper said.

“Then we have a returner, Beau Creep, as host, and is going to be doing things throughout the evening as well.”

New Zealand electronic musician K+Lab, and electronic hip-hop artist Def3 are both headlining Odditorium this year.

Fringe performance gets second showing at Odditorium

Creep is bringing a character they created for this year’s Edmonton Fringe Festival, with an expanded emphasis on elevating what makes that character unique.

“I’m getting to elevate its creepiness, elevate its kookiness, make it more of a horror element as it wasn’t initially created like that, but it has a whole bunch of really cool Frankenstein elements to it,” Creep said.

“I’m in a custom Sweet Carousel costume. She is a Canadian designer who’s designed for Lady Gaga. She’s designed a whole bunch of really amazing costumes for a lot of really cool people. So, the character itself is kind of like a vaudeville, cross-dressed magician who is very tongue-in-cheek and very, very laissez-faire, and just so happens to be built from other people’s parts.”

The goal was to create a character that audiences could empathize with, said Creep.

“I hope they fall in love with me because I hope that they see me, that they humanize me. That they can see me as a trans, non-binary individual,” Creep said.

“We all, as humans, can. But at the end of the day that I hope to be on stage and to connect with the people who are watching, and to be able to relate to the people who are watching, even even in an absurd and campy way.”

Cooper said that bringing a part of Creep’s show to Calgary from the Edmonton Fringe was an important way that Le Cirque de la Nuit was working as a performance company in Calgary.

“Specifically with Odditorium, because it’s a recurring event, it is the event that I think the company takes risks with. Odditorium is a place to showcase that and to create a space for performers to experiment. We are encouraging a lot of our performers to bring something new, bring something weird, and bring something that’s not fully polished—it doesn’t have to be perfect,” Cooper said.

He said that created a space for artists to help push the medium of theatre and their own artistic boundaries.

“It also gives the audience something totally weird to take in. So yeah, it could be something that they would not see in a typical theatre. It could be something that comes from the fringe world, and it could be something totally different,” Cooper said.

“But the fun thing about Odditorium is that you never really know what you’re going to get as an audience member.”

Tickets are on sale now for the one-night-only performance, taking place at The Palace Theatre. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., and tickets are strongly encouraged to be purchased before Saturday as previous years have sold out.