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The Boston Globe: "It’s a rare Cirque du Soleil production that lacks a consistent “wow’’ factor. Alas, “Dralion’’ is such a show.
2 comments:
Sonia
said...
Ok, this author had me until the end. Reading how they were disapointed with the lack of wow factor, did not surprise me in the least. For a company like Cirque who have all these great successes and heart stopping visuals, it is only natural for them to have a flop every once in a while. Its going to happen, just because its Cirque doesnt mean that they cant make mistakes. The fact that the author felt that there was no plot or rather wasnt strongly executed was fine. However, he tends to contridict himself towards the end in my opinion. 'Too often the show seems primarily animated by the principles of design, by a desire to create arresting visuals, rather than to take our breath away with sheer audacity and creativity' Being too animated in the pricipals of design? I mean its Cirque! Their audacity and creativity comes from the way they present it to the audience with beauty and ingenuity. Then at the end he says like its a bad thing, that youll probably just be commenting how good it looks. Well if Cirque has done their job you better be talking about how it was visually shocking on all levels.
I sometimes fear that as Cirque du Soleil's shows get bigger and bigger and more technically complicated, their older shows may start to show their age at an accelerated rate. Dralion opened in 1999, a long time before the other show the article mentioned, OVO (2009) and before Cirque started custom-building theatres for megashows like KA. Watching tapes of the older shows, I've noticed that the emphasis is on the expertise of the circus artists and not necessarily so much on the plot or sheer spectacle. Unfortunately for Dralion, the more plot-driven and more spectacle-heavy shows have won out, and it's sadly why Dralion seems to be on its very last legs here.
2 comments:
Ok, this author had me until the end. Reading how they were disapointed with the lack of wow factor, did not surprise me in the least. For a company like Cirque who have all these great successes and heart stopping visuals, it is only natural for them to have a flop every once in a while. Its going to happen, just because its Cirque doesnt mean that they cant make mistakes. The fact that the author felt that there was no plot or rather wasnt strongly executed was fine. However, he tends to contridict himself towards the end in my opinion. 'Too often the show seems primarily animated by the principles of design, by a desire to create arresting visuals, rather than to take our breath away with sheer audacity and creativity' Being too animated in the pricipals of design? I mean its Cirque! Their audacity and creativity comes from the way they present it to the audience with beauty and ingenuity. Then at the end he says like its a bad thing, that youll probably just be commenting how good it looks. Well if Cirque has done their job you better be talking about how it was visually shocking on all levels.
I sometimes fear that as Cirque du Soleil's shows get bigger and bigger and more technically complicated, their older shows may start to show their age at an accelerated rate. Dralion opened in 1999, a long time before the other show the article mentioned, OVO (2009) and before Cirque started custom-building theatres for megashows like KA. Watching tapes of the older shows, I've noticed that the emphasis is on the expertise of the circus artists and not necessarily so much on the plot or sheer spectacle. Unfortunately for Dralion, the more plot-driven and more spectacle-heavy shows have won out, and it's sadly why Dralion seems to be on its very last legs here.
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