It’s a complicated, fussy work, visually powerful and conceptually cumbersome. While it does not fully hold together, Rite of Spring’s design and spectacle make for a unique experience if viewers are happy to just let it all wash over them and not worry about connecting all the dots.
Diaspora offers the audience a vision of a distant imagined future and wow, what a vision it is!
There’s a great deal happening in Anthem, a cross section of humanity meets and the differing opinions and cultures make for great people watching.
Given what an immense and perpetual global franchise Cirque du Soleil has become, it must be quite a challenge to keep coming up with new themes while still attempting to conform to a vague unifying style that maintains the brand.
The banal is made dangerous in this one man DIY circus.
As climate change awareness reaches an all-time fever pitch, with the likes of Greta Thunberg calling on humanity to save the planet, while business booms for the Australian coal mining industry, Circus Oz’s Aurora could not be more perfectly timed.
What happens when a deep emotional connection is spurned, betrayed, dismissed and ignored? What dark depths is a wounded psyche capable of descending to in order to avenge an anguished psyche?
Being both participant and audience forces a level of engagement that is physical and immediate, enjoyable and challenging. However it does feel that the nature of the "theatre of performance" is more important than the content of its message.
