Quidam emanated from a concern about growing alienation and loneliness in a world that, ironically, is devising ever-more ingenious ways of keeping people in touch with one another. The show depicts human suffering, but at the same time celebrates life. Quidam is about rediscovery - about giving new meaning to the mundane. As such it is more thoroughly scripted than Cirque's previous shows. Quidam integrates performance and theatricality to a greater extent than ever before, drawing on the emotional relationships between the performers within the troupe. The color range is restrained, and the costumes have a carefully plucked raffishness about them. The idea is to underline the anonymity of mass society — "It could be anyone, anybody," the show's programme observes. "Someone coming, going, living in our anonymous society. A member of the crowd, one of the silent majority. One who cries out, sings and dreams within us all." — and to frame the circus acts as momentary explosions of beauty that defy the lifelessness of a grey and fraying world.

In this world, the one who cries out is Zoë, a young girl who fumes because, as she is constantly ignored by her parents, believes she's seen everything there is to see, experienced all there is to experience. For her, the world has lost all meaning. Her anger, sharp and unforgiving, shatters her reality and soon she finds herself in the universe of Quidam. Here she is not alone; she is accompanied by the playful companion (Karl/Fritz/Target) and a more enigmatic personage (John/Mark) who will attempt to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling, and the terrifying.