Friday September 15, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 37 |
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Monday, Oct 06, 2008
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Cirque du Soleil's Delirium coming to Seattle |
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| Cirque du Soleil's Delirium coming to Seattle | ||
| by E. Joyce Glasgow
- SGN A&E Writer
Delirium, Cirque du Soleil's new "arena" performance piece takes the company in a brave new direction. Centered primarily on the re-mixed music of past Cirque du Soleil productions, with lyrics added, this production is billed as "a live music concert that pushes the limit of arena performance&[and is] a multifaceted event of unprecedented proportion&driven by an urban tribal beat and awe-inspiring visuals, musicians, singers and dancers [who] transform the arena into [a] joyous frenzy". It is probably the biggest, most complex performance ever made for an arena, requiring double the amount of equipment needed for a mega rock concert. Cirque du Soleil partnered with "Live Nation", producers of arena concerts for Madonna, U2 and The Rolling Stones to successfully create a project of this magnitude. The dynamic Montreal team of Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, long time artistic collaborators, are the creators and directors of Delirium. Lemieux said the idea came from their hearts, a vision combining modern urban music with the concept of a need to get out of our isolation, return to a tribal experience, to gathering and living the same dream together and to get rid of an old illusion of separation by creating a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to the piece. I spoke with Carmen Ruest, Cirque du Soleil's creative director, who explained to me the evolution of the production since it first started its tour almost a year ago. I saw Delirium last February, on the East Coast and Ruest said that it went through changes between January and June 2006 including the addition a new acrobatic act. Ruest said that it cost five million dollars to create and tour the production and involves twenty two trailer trucks, thirteen tour buses, 170 performers and production crew and 150 local people in each city for loading in and out, catering and to help with costumes. I found Delirium amazingly extravagant and mind-bogglingly complicated, with the use of very sophisticated technical equipment and expertise. Sitting in front of me, alone, there were eight technicians operating computers. There are an incredible amount of lighting changes, gigantic projections on fifty foot tall transparent screens super-imposed over the stage on both sides and crucially important sound mixing and balancing, as all the music and singing is amplified and takes place all over the length of the one hundred and thirty foot long two-sided stage. The stage is twenty feet wide and the audience is seated on both sides, each side experiencing the same screen projections, while experiencing the action from a different perspective. As usual, the expected, marvelous theatricality of a Cirque du Soleil creation is evident here, with outrageous, flamboyant and colorful costumes, dramatic special effects and lighting, wild, energetic and rhythmical music, movement and singing, incredible acrobatics, stilt-walking and surreal visual projections, all meshing together into multi-dimensional scenarios, as a man, suspended from a hot air balloon, floats his way quizzically and awestruck, through, and participating in, his numerous, other-worldly but very real dreams: his "Delirium". I highly recommend experiencing Delirium. It is truly an example of the direction performance can and will go, in the future, utilizing access to continually more sophisticated technical abilities to help realize the wildest dreams of the limitless human imagination. Cirque du Soleil's Delirium will be performed for two performances only at Seattle's Key Arena on October 3rd and 4th at 8:00 PM. This show is not considered a show for children and is recommended for teens and up. For tickets and information about Delirium and other Cirque du Soleil productions, including their brand new Las Vegas show "Love", centered around the music of The Beatles, visit: www.cirquedusoleil.com. |
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International Readers |
REPORTS & MUSINGS FROM THE VETERAN GAY AND AIDS HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE
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 It's new! and live from Bumbershoot! |
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working for the freedom to
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copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2006