Having settled in your seats now; find the two “cabinets” stationed stage-right and stage-left. To their immediate sides are two columns – the “wave sensors” (satellite dishes and other radar gathering machines) – which appear to have been built out of scraps. A time piece on the far wall, which just a moment ago read 11:07, now turns with a loud chime to 11:08. A number of Victrola-inspired gadgets surround the stage’s thrust, which the Seeker buzzes around testing, calibrating. On another contraption, a cross between a gramophone and typewriter, he punches in a code, and then turns the lever to send his communication. Satisfied his message sent and received, he continues to ready his conveyance – a specially built chair standing 3.5 meters tall – for the journey he is preparing to take. Meanwhile, his Kurios robots are running amok in the audience, passing out pillows and blankets, and putting baby crib mobiles atop other’s heads. The clock on the wall turns over another minute, now reading 11:09.

At 11:10, as the lights dim, you can sense the tension in the air – a shock of electric excitement permeates as any previous vociferations at the announcement the show is about to begin comes to a sharp end. Then a gentleman, using a rather interesting hybrid accordion-keyboarded contraption (with no less than three phonograph speakers attached to it), steps to the front of the stage, and through the manipulation of his contraption, announces the name of the spectacle… KURIOS – CABINET DES CURIOSITÉS!

The sound of a train whistle off in the distance pierces the darkness next, immediately followed by the powerful beam of a bright, white light – the train’s headlight! As music begins to play (a funky fusion of jazz and electro-swing), the train peeks over the hill, and in an opening reminiscent of La Nouba’s Festival of Characters, Alegría’s “Milonga” Opening, and Varekai’s Musician’s Walk, artists spill into the big top. These are “The Travelers” (a miniature train atop their heads); they are accompanied by the show’s musicians: Marc Sohier (Canada) – bandleader, bass, double bass; Michael Levin (USA) – cello, keyboards, Guitar; Paul Lazar (France) – Violins; Lidia Kaminska (Poland) – Accordion, Keyboard; Christopher “Kit” Chatham (USA) – Drums; Antoine Berthiaume (Canada) – Guitar; Christa Mercey (Canada) – Percussion), and Singer Eirini Tornesaki (Greece).

The train chugs through the big top – from one side to the other – on a journey we know not where… Or do we? Just where we’ll have to wait and see!

Once the train disappears around a bend in the tracks, our attention is returned to the Seeker (Anton Valen, from Spain), who is busy in his workshop making final adjustments to his equipment – connecting the chair to the electric dynamos, calibrating his sensitive aural receivers, checking the wave sensors for analogous readings, and sending one last communication: -.- ..- .-. .. — … (K-U-R-I-O-S). Set, and ready to go, the Seeker hops into his chair. As the clock on the wall strikes 11:11, he flips the switch, sending his mechanical whirligigs into motion. But something unexpected happens… instead of transporting him to another world, it seems this other realm is about to come to him!