REVIEW:

Although the show’s run was unexpectedly brief—lasting just four months—it was a visually daring and technologically ambitious production. Its darker tone and intense sequences marked a bold departure from Cirque du Soleil’s usual family-friendly fare, which may have surprised longtime audiences. Still, the projection work received exceptional praise.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A judging panel of entertainment professionals shortlisted Olivier Goulet and Johnny Ranger's design for R.U.N for the Video & Projection Design Award in the Theatre category in Live Design's 2020 Design Achievement Awards.

R.U.N's entire stage and set extended 180 degrees around the audience and was a massive panoramic projection surface. Olivier Goulet, Johnny Ranger, and the 4U2C team created wholly unique worlds for the 10 chapters of the show, ranging from a short film shot in the Nevada desert and Downtown Vegas, a torture chamber deep underground in the desert, a high-speed highway car chase (done with a live gaming engine), an underwater car crash and subsequent drowning scene, a Tron-like alternate reality world for the final confrontation. All of this was also done with the integration of a live camera woman who was in fact a character in the show, who's live feed was integrated into the scenographic video content. “Although this show was in some ways a failure, these were the most complex and technologically remarkable projections I ever have seen. Sitting in my seat, I found the way Goulet played with the intersection of film and performance to be like something I never had seen. These projections were kinetic in every way, thrusting the audience (which was shocked into a kind of sensual submission) from one dimension to another. If only the storytelling had matched Goulet and Ranger's brilliant, brilliant work.” — Chris Jones, Theatre Critic, Chicago Tribune and a Design Achievement Awards judge