Varekai - Cirque du Soleil

Tonight I saw wonder and magic in the shape of Cirque du Soleil's 'Varekai' at the Royal Albert Hall. The spectacle was astonishing, the energy flowing from the stage along with visions of beauty and grace. Hyperbole? Probably, but it was a joy to behold and I was almost breathless by the end of the show.

How to describe Cirque du Soleil? Extreme circus? Acrobatic ballet? Acrobats, tumblers, jugglers, contortionists, clowns... all this and more wrapped up in magical costumes to inhabit a magical world for a couple of hours. I loved it.

The stage was built out into the auditorium with an aerie built above the stage reached by a rickety walkway and this meant that the space above the stage could be used just as much as the stage itself, with the aerial artists using the vast space. Some artists fell from the aerie, others emerged from a forest of metal poles and others surfaced from below the stage. Many of the costumes were based on an insectoid theme and all contributing to a glorious extravaganza of colour and shape, with slinky lizard creatures moving in fits and starts around the stage and the tumbler troupe in red being portrayed as army ants. The designers must've had great fun.

No doubt there's a story behind the spectacle but I'm not too bothered about that, I prefer to make up my own. An angel falls from grace and tumbles to earth where he loses his wings and then falls in love with the lizard princess who is kidnapped and taken to the aerie where she later emerges as a shiny creature and they get married and live happily ever after. Something like that.

Inbetween scenes with them we are introduced to the strange world with army ants tumbling through the air and around the stage, lizards creeping over each other, graceful birds flying through the air and the comic creations slowing things down and providing some pacing to the spectacle. The only bit that was totally out of synch was the magician and his assistant who re-emerged later as a cabaret singer chasing the spotlight as it moved around the auditorium. Strange but quite fun in its own way.

If you get the chance, go and see Cirque du Soleil perform any of its shows. Leave reality at the door and enter a world of wonder.