Theatrical, uplifting production combines digital and practical effects and the usual outstanding cast of performers.

A cellist in elk antlers playing center stage. A dog-man performing one of the best juggling acts I’ve ever seen. A contortionist who performs his rapid-fire, cringy tricks to a pounding backbeat. And a 12-ton, 23-foot square cube that serves as the focal set piece for a nonstop barrage of jaw-dropping gymnastic and circus stunts that seem to defy physics at every turn.

Yep, of course I’m talking about Cirque du Soleil, whose new show ECHO is in residence in the big top next to Ball Arena through Aug. 17. I’ve been to three or four of these over the years, and it’s easy to say that, amazing as the others were, this is the best I’ve seen. That’s because Mukhtar OS Mukhtar, who wrote and directed it, has done a remarkable job of blending practical and digital-visual effects into a seamless mélange of ever-shifting looks that create a living landscape for the large cast of performers.

With few words spoken, the whole thing is driven sonically by a live band that includes six powerful vocalists who often wander onto the stage to join the action.

The Cartographer, left, and Future, center, in ‘ECHO.’ | Photo: Jean-François Savaria

Cirque du Soleil shows always have some sort of story to hang everything on. In this case, it’s about a redheaded girl, Future (Louana Seclet-Monchot), and her BFF — a man-dog named Ewai (Philippe Dupuis) — who stumble upon the aforementioned cube and a variety of animal-people associated with it.

Costumes are always a critical element of Cirque productions, and here Costume Designer Nicolas Vaudelet has created an entire subspecies of people all in white and gray with animal heads. From a seal and an eagle to moose, a rhino, a rooster and goats, to name a few, these characters flow in and out, changing costume as the various acts demand and creating a sense of an entire community.

Seeing a goat-headed person flitting around in the forest might seem eerie, but in ECHO, it’s all about a benevolent community helping one another. Indeed, if there’s one overarching theme to this production, it’s joy — manifested in a variety of ways.

A ‘vertical ballet’ around the enormous CUBE at the top of Act I. | Photo: Jean-François Savaria

The CUBE

It’s hard to overstate just how incredibly cool the CUBE is, and how well it serves as a playing surface as well as a monolithic, constantly changing presence that, in any sci-fi story, would be malignant. Here, it’s a platform, a screen, a shelter and an amazingly adaptable focal point.

It’s also an inspired bit of tech, writ large. Equipped with 2.7 km of LED strips on top, it’s lit from within and without. Projections on its surface interface with physical elements like doors and holes that characters pop in and out of. Like a gargantuan, all-white Rubix cube, its surface shifts, puzzle-like, using a mix of projections and actual moving pieces. How it all fits together to trick the eye is truly wondrous — yet it never overwhelms the cast as they perform the acrobatic feats Cirque du Soleil is known for.

As to be expected, even the familiar circus acts are reimagined for some real surprises. At the top of Act Two, there’s a slackwire act performed within the CUBE featuring two “animals” (Taras Hoi and Evgeny Vasilenko) on intersecting slackwires. Never seen that before. While the stakes of being at injury-level heights are removed, the dramatic tension comes both from the ability to do more daring stunts at that height as well as how the two must collaborate to make it all work.

The Human Cradle act | Photo: Jean-François Savaria

Perhaps most impressive was the “Banquine and the Human Cradle” act performed by The Color Paper People. A combination of high-caliber jumping and flipping tricks that we all recognize, it’s super-charged with an incredibly well-choreographed flow of action between trick-setup-trick.

That, of course, goes for all of the acts, which also included two aerial “fireflies” suspended by their hair, bungee-strap bits, a flying-poles segment (think silks-style aerial acrobatics but with long poles instead) and the opening CUBE act where multiple performers hang from the structure and fly all around it.

Two clowns — “Double Trouble” — provide plenty of fun between acts, but they also have their own segments where they attempt to create their own cube using plain cardboard boxes. It’s the perfect complement to the high-tech CUBE — two funny, talented guys — Clement Malin and Thomas Gaskin — take the most basic building block imaginable and create a series of enormously entertaining bits remarkable in their own way.

Ewai the dog (left) with some of the other characters in ‘ECHO.’ | Photo: Jean-François Savaria

One also can’t help but be struck by the tent structure itself. It takes 50 people nearly five days to put it up, and once you’re inside it’s easy to forget you’re in a tent. With 2,600 seats, there aren’t really any bad ones unless you’re way over on the side. Cirque du Soleil creates a mini village wherever they go, with concessions, gift shop (of course), outside pre-performance areas and the nicest, best-managed set of porta-potties you’ve ever seen.

Tickets range from $54 at the back of the house to front-row seats up to $233. If you can swing it, this is a great time to check out this international cast of performers do their magic under the big top. At multiple times during ECHO, it’s likely something you’ve never seen before.