Review-Quidam
March 12, 2009
Date Reviewed: 12th March, 2009
Venue: Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
I have to admit that I have seen the Cirque Du Soleil a few times before, but that has been limited to brief extracts of their shows when I have been in the audience at the Royal Variety Performance.
How this works in a two hour show always puzzled me until now, when finally Newcastle has its chance to stage one of their spectacular shows. The Arena has been changed in to the North Easts largest theatre for the event and with Mamma Mia! the musical, coming to the venue later this year, we could see more and more theatrical productions here.
The Cirque Du Soleil is a global hit with seventeen productions running world-wide, with six of those are in various hotels in Las Vegas
So it was with a great deal of curiosity that I attended Quidam.
The show opens with a young girl being ignored by her parents before a headless man holding an umbrella strolls on to the stage. The Cirque Du Soleil excels at these weird and wonderful sights which help transform the stage and tell the story between the more traditional acts. Not that there is anything to traditional about anything the Cirque Du Soleil does in the first place.
The main character is the young girl, who as her parents rise high across the stage in their armchairs, enters in to the weird world of Cirque Du Soleil, which I assume is in her mind.
Once the show gets underway we see spectacle after mind blowing spectacle. These range from a man in silver wheel racing across the stage like a hamster, tossing of diablos which defy belief by young girls and a girl balancing on top of poles. Each act seems to start in a straight forward manner then test the boundaries that you thought were possible or acceptable. The best example of this is a large group of performers skipping over three ropes, on a revolving stage and never putting a foot wrong.
The show brings cheers and gasps from the audience, but it offsets these by its magic tranquil moments, which are lit so well that you could almost be watching a ballet.
After highlight, after highlight I was more than disappointed by the end of the show which seemed such a damp squib after the magic that went before. Each act had seemed so impossible to top I was waiting for one massive finale, unfortunately it never came, but such was the power of the rest of the show it is easy to forgive.
I now understand why the Cirque Du Soleil has such a following and I would welcome the opportunity to catch some of their other shows.
John Dixon
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