BOSTON - The circus has come to town. Not your traditional circus, mind you, but the French circus.

With all the art, music and excitement of Cirque Du Soleil, Kooza is setting up shop at the Bayside Expo Center from now until through Oct. 12.

Like any Cirque Du Soleil show, Kooza is not so much a show or event as it is an experience. Each show is true spectacle and seeks to engage the audience on every level imaginable.

Kooza itself is strictly about imagination, the same imagination that you used to have as a child. The show begins with a lone boy flying his kite. He then gets a special delivery, a star-covered magic box that releases the tendril-haired flame colored trickster that leads the boy and the audience through a land of imagination gone wild.

The show splits up the narrative with wild circus acts that your parents or even their parents couldn't even imagine. Turkish high-wire artists jump rope, fence and even balance a chair between two bikes all while dangling above a circular stage at the center of the auditorium. There is also a dance between two lovers, with the man on a unicycle while his love poses and contorts in his arm or above his head all while circling the perimeter of the stage. All the while set to Latin jazz-fusion.

The most awe-inspiring of these is the set of three synchronized acrobatic contortionists. The main narrative shows the young boy chasing the trickster through an imaginary kingdom while jumping back into the real world, which is signified by Dixie-style jazz and lends the imaginary city the flavor of the Big Easy.

The story itself is the traditional reluctant hero that eventually fins his calling and becomes more whole during the process. But the fact that the whole thing takes cues from stories such as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and even France's Nemo the little dreamer makes everything seem that much more new.

Getting everyone involved

Any Cirque Du Soleil show includes audience participation but it seems like they pulled out all the stops. Before the show even begins, a clown is being chased by police, a delivery boy is searching the audience to find his customer, and a befuddled manager that looks like he took acting lessons and his fashion sense from Christopher Lloyd tries to keep the stage and audience intact before the show.

To show that no expense has been spared even the food is up to the standards of a show like Kooza. Each concession stand circling the main tent offers food that could very well be found in a gourmet bistro or high-end restaurant.

For a night of entertainment, anyone could be hard pressed to find anything better than Kooza, and if they did they would have to explain just how any show could match the pomp, circumstance and spectacle that comes from a boy, his kite and his wild imagination.

RYAN BROWN can be reached at 508-236-339 or at rbrown@thesunchronicle.com.