Alegria - Cirque du Soleil

My treat this evening was to see 'Alegria' by the Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall. Every time they come to London I think I must see them but I never do. Until tonight. We were royally entertained by the majesty of circus and spectacle that is Cirque du Soleil.

Spectacular circus acts, acrobats, gymnastics, trapeze, fire-eating, dancing, contortionists, clowns, songs and music, astonishing costumes... roll it all together and you get close to what we witnessed tonight. I loved the hula-hoop girl, particularly how she just flung them away from her; cube-boy doing aerial acrobatics inside and out of a large metal cube; the courtier-elves bouncing high on the thin Russian bars; the trampoline maniacs shooting all over the stage in a non-stop feast for the eyes, threatening violence and disaster; fire-eaters and jugglers; the high-wire swinging, gasping as they fly through the air to be caught, twist and launch themsleves back to the bars.

I'm not altogether certain what it was all about and I don't think I want to know. The grotesques wandering round admiring their breasts and flirting with the youngsters, the strange ring-master, the elves and Mayans, the swan-like nymphs... all of this is a world in and of itself, with its own hierarchies and history. The message around all this seems to be to let your imagination soar, so I will. I even enjoyed the wierdness of the clowns and I don't usually like clowns.

I was very pleased to catch this show and I'll be watching out for the Soleil people on their next visit to London. Excitement and thrills aplenty, stylish and stylised, I loved it.

The only downside was the nearly two hours it took to get home... sigh.