POSTED: Monday, January 3, 2011, 4:45 PM
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| cirquedusoleil.com |
The Liger's cousin, "Dralion" represents a fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics, yielding a fierce Dragon/Lion hybrid known for its skills in gymnastics.
Before I begin, I'll mention that there's a new tradition for anyone under 40 in the Cirque du Soleil crowd to be, we'll say, in
Dazed and Confused form. Now, I know this isn't very gonzo but I'm glad to say that I was completely straight-laced because the acts in "Dralion" were plenty insane on their own.
The performances were jaw-dropping feats of high-flying prowess, with masterful accuracy and good, old fashioned gymnastic contortionism. Each act had a flavor of a major world ethnicity in performance style, costume and music.
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| cirquedusoleil.com |
One couldn't help but detect a chip on the shoulder of the show's architect in the form of a heavy Eastern bias. A thread weaved throughout the performances was a silent film-esque mini-narrative that seemed to be based on three stooges-style physical comedy. There was no English dialogue, but rather a style of grunting pseudo-Latin which I couldn't determine as trying to represent Italian, vaudeville-era Hollywood or just vague western jackassery. But the implication was that Eastern cultures produce amazing feats of well-disciplined entertainment while the West enjoys pies-in-the-face and fart jokes.
Still, there's nothing wrong with watching a diss to your entertainment heritage as long as it's a thoroughly amazing diss. There was a juggler doing crazy things with countless objects simultaneously; a trampoline act that launched human beings some 60 feet into the air (while they seemed to be running up the side of a wall); and equally unlikely ball-balancing (with groups!) and hoop-jumping that could make Keri Strug feel like an uncoordinated oaf.
There was aerial ribbon-dancing and mini-Italian operas that inspired the imagination. And throughout it all a grand soundtrack — performed live. The music may have been the best part. A sextet of mostly hidden musicians playing pan-ethnic melodies of every scope could have been the entire Trans-Siberian Orchestra for all I know. The music seemed to incorporate every instrument, as the flying Epcot Center trapezed it's way across continents. I would pay money to see them on their own, even if they didn't have the world's most jacked up circus re-writing history in front of them.
The Liacouras Center was a great venue, we had pretty good seats, but there didn't look to be a bad seat in the house. Incorporating trap doors, moving platforms, and probably a bit more than a half-court's worth of performance space, this beast of a production was ridiculously economical on square footage.
I guess even the stage crew conjures a disciplined sense of Asian efficiency.
The next stop for "Dralion" is in Boston — which is the closest it'll be to Philly until they make later-in-the-year stops in central N.Y. And for those of you young folks who think you're gonna "enhance the experience," well I ain't your pop but I would recommend saving that for an event that isn't already sensory overloaded.
