As I mentioned already, the Cirque Ici show "Secret" is very very good. Here's a slightly more in depth review.
It started with traditional wild animals, the tamer in the centre of the ring with a bull whip and lion roaring sound effects. The animals were not actual animals, but balls of rope, strange furry tubes that rolled along the ground and metal tubs of varying sizes. The tubes were amazing, transforming into unlikely shapes...one turned into a pyramid at the end of its roll and the tamer climbed inside.
Another 'animal' was the long steel bar that the poster all over town shows him manipulating. Like so much of the show I feel I can't describe it accurately, you just have to go and see it. The bar started out straight and ended up a snakelike twist that moved on its own. Gorgeous gorgeous stuff, and the tamer was very elegant in his interactions with it.
The rest of the show was based around contraptions and magic, strange things that you look at and wonder about and after some work from the circus performers their purpose is revealed and you are left in wonderment.
I don't want to spoil it too much, but there was also a trapeze segment with no people involved on stage and a fantastic bucking bronco sequence with the lead performer on this.....thing....kind of like a giant metal scrubbing brush....as I said, I don't think words can do this show justice. It's something that you need to go to and immerse yourself in.
The soundscape was fantastic, there are two live DJs with fantastical gramaphone-esque stations to work at. Very very good at heightening the drama and anticipation of the reveal. There were a bunch of other people in the show as assistants, handing the lead guy/ringmaster/animal tamer/lead character the things he needed, pulling them offstage again and generally making the show seamless. They were all very very good at what they did.
I should also mention the shoes. If you've seen the promotional picture then you've got an idea, they're long pointed armor shoes, medieval scale mail things that made a huge noise when he slapped them down and comically curled down when he stood on a stool. Fascinating costumes all through the show actually.
Lee's review is a little bit more reserved than mine. He didn't love it wholeheartedly, and his exact quote was "I liked it and I didn't." This can all be traced to the time taken to set up some of the contraptions, some of the balancing stuff, etc was very exact and took a while to prepare. I was alright with waiting because the pay off was always worth it for me but Lee says his attention span is not long enough. He also disagreed that the pay off was good enough at a couple of points.
This afternoon we're going to another show, a play called "Lifeboat", should be good.
Posted by jenni at March 1, 2008 09:18 AM