ECHO Returns to the Old Port of Montreal in Spectacular Fashion
On Thursday, May 21, under the iconic blue-and-white Big Top at the Old Port of Montreal, Cirque du Soleil welcomed guests to the premiere of the fourth edition of ECHO, a contemporary circus production that blends acrobatics, music, technology, and storytelling into a visually arresting theatrical experience.
The evening gathered approximately 2,500 spectators, including figures from the worlds of culture, sports, and public life, for the celebrated show’s long-awaited Montreal return.
A Story Built Around Connection
Created by author-director Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar, ECHO follows a young protagonist named Future and her loyal companion Ewai the Dog as they encounter a mysterious cube that transforms the world around them. Their journey explores the interconnected relationships between people, animals, and nature through a narrative rooted in curiosity, responsibility, and hope.
At the center of the production stands the monumental Cube, a towering structure that functions simultaneously as stage, character, symbol, and technological marvel. Throughout the performance, it rotates, rises, deconstructs, and reassembles while serving as a canvas for immersive projections. The Cube becomes a visual metaphor for creation, transformation, and the consequences of human choices.
Acrobatics Meet Innovation
ECHO showcases an impressive range of circus disciplines, each integrated directly into the story. Highlights included the elegant vertical ballet of Symbiosis, the soaring Bungee Straps performance by the Cartographer, the delicate Double Hair Suspension act performed by the Fireflies, and the exhilarating Banquine and Human Cradle sequence that filled the stage with movement and energy.
The second act maintained the momentum with a tense Slackwire performance, an engaging juggling sequence featuring Ewai the Dog, a remarkable contortion act by the Fossorial, and a graceful Washington Trapeze performance by Future. The evening culminated in a thrilling Triple Teeterboard finale that sent performers flying high above the audience beneath the Big Top canopy.
What distinguished these acts was the way they interacted with the production’s central environment. Artists climbed, swung from, disappeared within, and performed around the Cube, creating a sense that every acrobatic feat emerged naturally from the world of the story.
Music, Design, and Atmosphere
The visual language of ECHO embraces a clean contemporary aesthetic. Costume designer Nicolas Vaudelet contrasted white paper-inspired animal figures with vividly coloured human characters, creating striking stage images throughout the performance.
Equally memorable was the production’s music. For the first time in a Cirque du Soleil Big Top production, seven vocalists perform live while also playing instruments. Their voices blended with strings, percussion, and electronic textures to create a rich soundscape that carried the audience through the emotional arc of the show.
Ten projectors transformed the Cube into an ever-changing visual landscape, generating three-dimensional effects and immersive imagery that expanded the physical boundaries of the stage.
A Homecoming Worth Celebrating
Three years after its original creation, ECHO feels perfectly at home in Montreal. The production combines Cirque du Soleil’s celebrated acrobatic excellence with a distinctly modern artistic vision that reflects contemporary concerns about community, coexistence, and our relationship with the natural world.
The enthusiastic reception at the premiere has already prompted an extension of the show’s Montreal engagement through August 16, 2026. Judging by the standing ovation that followed the final curtain, audiences at the Old Port of Montreal are eager to continue the journey.
Cirque du Soleil ECHO
Facebook: @CirqueduSoleilECHO
Instagram: @echo_cirquedusoleil
Website: cirquedusoleil.com/echo
