…and the great evening was had by my friend Carolyn, Richard and Wendy Pini and myself, all of us wide-eyed and clapping our fool heads off for Varekai, a touring production of Cirque du Soleil. It's camped out in downtown Los Angeles through November 23, then it heads for Pomona, Orange County, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver and elsewhere. If you've never seen a Cirque production, go. If you have seen one and this one's coming your way, you already want tickets. You can get them and the schedule through the Cirque du Soleil website.
Let's see…how do I describe a Cirque production to someone who's never seen one? There's music…live music, which adds a special note to the occasion. Acrobats often perform to recorded music and it makes a great difference, not only to the ambience but to the performance, as well. When the music is canned, the performers must perform to its rhythms and their timing is constricted. With real musicians on the premises, the performer can be more spontaneous and trust that the conductor will follow them. In Cirque, if a performer misses (as happened twice this evening), he or she will usually immediately attempt the feat again, and the conductor will adjust to accommodate it. The music is quite lovely but the best part of it is that though it is sometimes augmented via synthesizer, it is played anew for each performance.
There are costumes. Odd but beautiful costumes. I can't claim that I like or understand them all but at least you don't sit there going, "Oh, that old outfit again."
There's a storyline — in this case, something about Icarus falling to Earth and losing his wings. I haven't really understood the storylines of any of the Cirque shows I've seen…Dralion, O, or two viewings of Mystere, and I wonder if anyone does. Or cares…
…because there are incredible feats: People leaping, flying, tumbling, bouncing, spinning, falling, swinging, balancing and just generally doing the impossible. You sit there thinking to yourself, I could not possibly see what I just saw. Human beings cannot do that. But these can. My favorites were the juggler who juggled five or six balls at once, the troupe who juggled each other, and the closing in which performers swung on large swings and were flung across the stage, into large sails, onto each others' shoulders and even onto other large swings. (I also enjoyed the clowns, who were surprisingly clever.)
There are no animal acts. That's always been a policy of Cirque du Soleil and I kind of like it. In light of a certain recent occurrence, I think I like it even more.
I have to admit I don't fully comprehend a lot of what's happening on the Cirque stage…people writhing on the floor in odd costumes that I guess symbolize something…other performers wandering out just to stare at the ones in the spotlight. I also have to admit it doesn't matter. Every time I see a Cirque du Soleil production, I walk out thinking, "Gee, I want to go see another one of their shows." Right now, there are five touring, three in permanent residence in Vegas (with another on the way) and one in Florida, so I have a lot of opportunities. So do you.