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Cirque du Soleil’s “Delirium” - $20? Dream on
For those Cirque du Soleil fans who’ve had to drive up to Dallas or down to Austin to get their live fix of the eye-filling, jaw-dropping performing company, its film Delirium offers a reduced experience for a cheaper ticket. More important, it’s here in Waco. Delirium, a filmed version of the company’s touring show shot largely during its final London appearance, captures much of Cirque’s sensory magic for a $20 ticket, roughly a third of the price of the cheap seats at the live show, but hefty nonetheless in movieland, particularly movieland for parents.
I saw the film last night with my 15-year-old daughter (and about eight other people) and found it closer to a $15 experience. I had been led to believe it would be more of a music-driven pastiche of other Cirque shows, but it was more or less the filmed version of its “Delirium” stage show.
Many of Cirque’s hallmarks came through: the same surrealistic narrative and images (this one had an ordinary man searching for meaning while drifting through a dream world - hence the title - while suspended under a balloon); the same rich costuming, lighting and backdrops; the same breath-taking acrobatic stunts.
In person, it can overwhelm the senses (OK, maybe just sight and sound), but seeing it on the screen shrinks the experience a bit. Though other Cirque performances have been staged on the equivalent of a thrust stage, with audience seated roughly in a surrounding horseshoe, “Delirium” featured a large center stage flanked by giant projection screens.
Seeing those oversized screens contained within the theater’s screen image adds a slight distancing effect. Rather than being overwhelmed with the sheer human creativity found at a Cirque show, one feels at the movies, a passive observer of a visually impressive show.
While the show loses a little visually in translation from 3- to 2D, the sound also seems constrained. At least two numbers featuring booming African drums and duelling percussion groups came off as merely loud when they could have been thundering.
Delirium’s’music was characteristically eclectic, pop and global: African percussion, French pop, tango, samba and Euro-pop with lyrics in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and what sounded like some African languages.
Visually, Delirium’s scenes interpreted the ocean, a star-spangled cosmos, a volcano, a growing jungle and boat-like prows.
The thought struck me while watching the character on stilts employ a giant hammer to open an even bigger door that Waco’s Robert Wilson was doing this sort of visually eye-filling theatrical production a generation ago, playing with our perceptions of time and space. His productions may have established his reputation as a brilliant director of the avant-garde, but they certainly didn’t create the lucrative empire of Cirque du Soleil
Still, two of “Delirium’s” closing stage acts went a long way to justify the higher ticket price: a hoops juggler whose metallic hoops spun iridescent patterns of light as they twirled, and a quartet of muscled acrobats who built interlocking human sculptures while impossibly balanced on their hands.
Cirque’s artistic trappings may seem inscrutable to those trying to puzzle out their symbology (I confess, I find them inscrutable), but it’s awe-inspiring performances like these, and readily accessible emotions and moods (love, loss, fear, friendship), that blow away any cobwebs of confusion.
Two screenings of “Delirium” are left for the weekend, at 12:30 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. That’s different from a previously announced 7 p.m. on those days, so be advised.
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By Win Emmons III
August 23, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this
Mark your calendars: The Children of Eden are about to arrive. The highly anticipated Stephen Schwartz musical opens Friday, Sept. 5 at the Waco Civic Theatre for a three weekend run, with performances running through Sept. 21. Schwartz also wrote “Godspell,” “Pippin,” and “Wicked.” “Children of Eden” features a beautiful musical score and a plot about family relationships based on the stories of Creation, Adam and Eve, and Noah from Genesis. The show is appropriate for all ages and religious persuasions, and it is rated G. Stage direction is by Russ Williams and musical direction by Tommy Edds.Set design is by Scott Baker and costume design by Susan Voss. Tickets are a mere $12, $10 for children and seniors.For further information, call 776-1591 or see http://wacocivictheatre.org