The Cirque du Soleil celebrated their 25th anniversary on Tuesday. The founder of Cirque, Guy Laliberté, is now worth around 2 buillion dollars, so I dare say the last 25 years have been good to him. He`ll be the first Canadian tourist to visit space in September 2009; something that he can probably easily afford. While he’ll be soaring high over our heads, we’ll continue in letting ourselves getting immersed in the world he’s created. I recently talked avbout their newest show “Ovo”, but I also recently saw “KÀ” and “O” in Las Vegas, so I will give a brief review on each of those as well.
Las Vegas is host to six shows by the Cirque du Soleil. While I would have loved to have seen all of them, they are quite expensive, so we settled on two. The first we saw was “O”, which is done inside, around, and over a huge pool. The name “O” is a play on words since it sounds like “eau”, which is French for water. The show has a very distinct Victorian style to it, but with a perhaps more macabre tone. The pool itself was very impressive since the floor would rise (you couldn`t notice it as it caused no ripples in the water as it rose and descended) and suddenly you had people running on top of the water. The show overall felt less like a circus show (at least compared to Kooza and Ovo) and more like a variety show. While this normally would have been a disappointment, the show in itself was amazing and the stage was incredible. It really makes a difference when your show is permanently located at one place and a stage is built accordingly. There is no way “O” could travel to other cities. It is glued to Las Vegas, and as such, I highly recommend that if you visit the city, that you go see this show. It is not your typical circus show, and it is guaranteed to impress!
The other show we saw was “KÀ”. The setting this time was feudal Asia, and while there is no water, this is another show that benefits from having its own stage. Using the largest hydraulics I have ever seen, the stage rises from below, can rotate 360 degrees horizontally and incline up to 90 degrees vertically. The stage also has light receptors in which it can show certain visual effects depending where the actors are. This was used really well in a certain scene in which the stage is raised fully vertically, and then actors would shoot fake arrows from the aisles. Whenever an arrow “hit”, a physical spike would come out of the stage, and the stage would react accordingly making it look like a cloud of dust just appeared. It really looked like an arrow had been shot at the stage. In this scene, one character was trying to escape the enemy and he would climb the arrows in the wall. They were not attached and if they fell, they would really fall off the stage into the void below (where I presume was set up with mats for their safety). There were also other stages used that could move back and forth around the stage area. The stage area was huge and technically, this show was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. Content-wise, it feels a lot more like a theatrical play than a circus show, and it has a lot deeper story than any other show. Personally, I was hoping for some more martial arts, but overall I greatly enjoyed it. Dharti left disappointed, but we had just been spoiled by Ovo and “O”, that she was expecting something along the same vein. KÀ is another show which I heartily recommend if you are visiting Las Vegas.
If you only have time (or money) for one show, I would say go see “O”, but you can`t go wrong with either. Just don`t expect your typical circus show and let your imagination enjoy the ride.
