Simply astonishing entertainment
4:42pm Thursday 26th March 2009 in Search Module
Quidam
Cirque du Soleil
MEN Arena
IT’S not often you can say you have seen a show that is so spellbinding that you actually forget to clap.
But most of Quidam is so amazing, both technically and in terms of what the human body is capable of, that there were times when I just found myself sitting in stunned silence.
It’s the first time that the colourful show has been performed in an arena environment (rather than the traditional Big Top) and the venue had been adapted to cater for a smaller audience of 5,000, with a huge stage and enormous computer controlled structure high above, from which the incredible aerial acrobats hung, twirled and somersaulted.
More than 50 performers from 14 countries combined to show off astonishing balance, poise, co-ordination, strength and bravery.
The story is a little hard to follow, but tells of a young girl’s lone journey and the strange and marvellous people she meets along the way.
Highlights included Jerome Le Baut and Anna Vincente’s “Statue” where the pair’s strength and balance combined to make a human work of art; “German Wheel”, in which Cory Sylvester careered around the stage inside a huge steel contraption and the finale, with acrobats throwing themselves around at gasp-inducing heights.
Clown Toto Castineiras took audience interactivity to new heights as he literally jumped on one poor female as he “coached” her to act seductively for an imaginary movie he was filming.
Cirque du Soleil are about as far away from the traditional notion of a circus as you can get.
Instead, backed by evocative music from a small band at the back of the stage, this was more a potent and surreal mix of theatre, ballet and acrobatics.
Astonishing.
Last day today
Ian Savage
