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MAIHAMA, Japan (AFP) - Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian-based circus and entertainment troupe, on Tuesday unveiled part of a tarot-inspired permanent show at Tokyo Disney Resort as it tries to expand in Asia.
Cirque, which has found global success with its blend of traditional circus, theatre, music and special effects, is to open the custom-made show, Zed, to the public on October 1 at the Disney resort's Theatre Tokyo.
It will be the second permanent show in Asia following one that opens in August in Macau.
Zed was inspired by the world of tarot. The show's title comes from the name of the main character, Zed the fool, said its director Francois Girard at a media preview.
"We believe that creativity in entertainment has unique power to make time still and help people forget for a short moment their regular problems of life," company senior vice president Gilles Sainte-Croix said.
Theatre Tokyo was built at a cost of 10 billion yen (97 million dollars), with another four billion yen spent to produce the show, Cirque du Soleil president and chief executive Daniel Lamarre said.
The theatre has 2,170 seats, more than any of the six existing Cirque du Soleil theatres -- one in Disney World in Orlando, Florida and five in Las Vegas.
Yoshiro Fukushima, president of Oriental Land Co., which operates the Disney resort in Japan, said he expected a permanent Cirque would help bring a new art-minded set of visitors to the sprawling complex on Tokyo's outskirts.
It will be the second stand-alone theatre of Cirque du Soleil -- which translates as Circus of the Sun -- after the one in Orlando. The others are housed in hotels.
"We have been in Orlando for 10 years now and we hope to be there forever. So that's the same objective we have here," Lamarre said.
Lamarre has said Asia could be a key growth driver for the Montreal-based company, which employs close to 1,000 artists.
"I think Asia has the potential to become more important to us than North America, which means that with Asia alone, we have the potential to double the size of our organisation," Lamarre told AFP last week in Macau.
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