Reviews

Le Grand Cirque (Tour – Liverpool)

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6 June 2009

From the moment the unknown and thoroughly entertaining Ring Master takes to the stage until the very last second, nothing in Le Grand Cirque does anything but mesmerise.

With feats of strength that defy logic, balance that defies gravity and agility that defies understanding, every single one of the performers on show here clearly have undergone – and delight in exhibiting the fruits of – an intense regime of training.

Yet what always sticks in the mind are two things. The first being what was it that made the acrobats think of wanting to leap from pole-to-pole backwards so that they can swing around by their legs, amongst other things and, two, what was the feeling of euphoria like when they performed these miraculous feats for the very first time?

Of course these are questions to which we as an audience are unlikely to find answers to, but the very fact that one can feel the jaw physically drop on more occasions than can be counted is testament enough to what we are witnessing

The lighting is dazzling, the costumes a chocolate box array of colour and spectacle and the music exhilarating, especially as the first beats of Bolero break out so that the troupe of male and female dancers, with only thick ropes tied to their wrists, take to the air to spin through the beams of lasers and smoke high above the stage.

A truly fantastic night out, that will have those who witnessed it in Liverpool talking for a very long time in deed.

– by Chris High