www.cirquefascination.com: Cirque du Soleil unveiled today in Bossier City its new touring show inspired by James Cameron’s record-breaking movie AVATAR, TORUK – The First Flight. The show will be presented in arenas around the world starting in Bossier City as of November 12, 2015. Presented by Visa Signature in the United States, the show will premiere in Montreal on December 21.
6 comments:
This is really frustrating to me. Don't get me wrong, I get the fact that Cirque is trying new things. A collaboration with a blockbuster film, though? It feels a bit like the artistry that cirque embodies is getting mixed up in a new capitalist direction. The artistry of some of the more classic cirque productions like O and KA and LA NOUBA is what, in some ways, made Cirque so successful in the first place. The mysteriousness and very unique styling that a Cirque production brings forward is so incredibly memorable, and I just can't imagine a show like TORUK being as memorable as I would want it to be because I know that it's part of a bigger corporate deal. I remember going to Cirque shows when I was younger and having my mother tell me that the production I was about to witness (O) was going to be very artful in its nature and may be hard to understand at some points. It's that curious artfulness which draws me to Cirque, and I can only hope that it's not being lost.
I'm not entirely sure what Cirque has to gain from this. I agree with Brennan, I love the ideas from their original shows, and this feels a bit like an attempt to gain more money than a creative endeavor, and I feel that Cirque has enough income as it is. This idea would be especially bad if they attempted to carry over the plot to this show. If this were simply using the world of Avatar to create a space where the acrobats can perform, that seems like less of a major issue. It is like fanfiction, but with circus performers. That being said, it does snow a lack of creativity on the part of Cirque. They have been able to come up with incredible worlds and spectacles all on their own, and it seems a bit sad if they feel they have to rely on a blockbuster movie to get people to show up and pay for more tickets. It feels kind of wrong to see this as a show. That being said, it will likely be successful, as Cirque shows often are, and it will be performed for a while. I just hope that this is not the start of a trend, and I hope to see more original Cirque shoes in the future.
I'm floored and frustrated by this. I learned about this production a while ago and was not excited now. Now that the production is opening, it's just hard to comprehend. I started to like Cirque when I was in 7th grade and I saw "Alegria", which was one of Cirque's first productions that they ever produced. When I saw that show, I saw magic, originality, and most importantly an experience unlike anything I have ever witnessed. This show is the complete opposite of that. It is a world that has already been created. When I look at the characters I already know what I'm getting in. It is fairly clear that Cirque's artistic direction and leadership has begun to shift over the past few years. Cirque's attention to original storytelling is fading and that worries me. They have been trying to crank out new shows more and more often and it seems like the drive is becoming quantity over quality.
OH MY GOD PUPPETS. Okay, to reign in the excitement over puppets, I agree with the previous commentators. This feels almost like a betrayal of sorts. Cirque's original work has been so inspirational to my life and seeing them drop to a adaptation of a popular movie is heartbreaking. Cirque now joins the rest of the literary community in regurgitating old stories and presenting them as new. In the last few decades literature has moved away from originality. Plots from astounding pieces have been reused and reused and reused until they're tired and old. Romeo and Juliet was rewritten as a 1950's musical, a zombie movie, and a children's movie about a war between red and blue gnomes (just to name a few). Avatar is by no means a great classic that go down in the ages as Shakespeare's work. In fact, the plot of Avatar is already an adaption of the classic well-told conqueror's tale. Though one can argue that Avatar is not an adaption of a former literary work since the plot and themes bare a striking resemblance to western history (cough cough imperialism). In that case it is an adaption/reinterpretation of past events. Ergo, not original. I suppose it was only a matter of time before Cirque fell prey to this trend. At least the puppets are gorgeous and the set will ,of course (it's Cirque for God's sake), be mind blowing.
it's not just like, the other commenters stated about how this seems a derivitive, and not in Cirque's nature to not be entirely creative and inventive. But, also, Avatar came out 5 years ago. My thought is, "Who's going to care about this?" Avatar was praised mainly for it's CGI, and visual feats, rather than its story, which.. lacked in substance. I'm sure that Cirque can take the alreadys tunning visuals of this film, and make them into their own incredible art, but my question is why.
I know that most of Cirque's audience are middle class white people, who are usually in Vegas. And this is probably a great show for that market. However, I hate to see these great creators and incredible artists lower their artisitic value and team up with something so commercial and so already derivative. They were already attracting the masses, so why cater to them? I hope this doesn't follow a rabbit hole of film-based shows.
As successful as James Cameron’s Avatar was, it is interesting to see the direction they went with the show. Of course doing it based off the movie would have to require some technical aspects in terms of military gear that would need to be accounted for. I think though by taking it back in time a bit before everything happened in the movie, helps to create a better atmosphere by allowing the characters to develop, and create a more fluid movement throughout the show. Part of what makes Cirque so unique to watch is the acrobatics. I guess what helps the story to develop is by having a narrator, from the one show I used, I didn’t really hear any scripted talk happening. I would think you could make this work without having a narrator to tell the story, that what makes each story you see that much stronger in development.
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