Cirque Du Soleil Thrills As Expected With Their Return To London Royal Albert Hall

Written and Captured By | Morris Shamah

Cirque Du Soleil is back at London’s Royal Albert Hall for their annual winter residency, this time with a reimagined version of their 1994 classic, Alegria. Retitled Alegria: In A New Light, this 30th anniversary revival started in 2019 as 25th Anniversary run in North America. Five years later and the Royal Albert Hall residency marks the European premiere of the new production. Consisting of 16 acts, the show runs 130 minutes including a 25 minute interval.

All the thrills you expect from a Cirque Du Soleil performance are here – from flying trapeze artists to fire dancing, from contortionists to hula hoop artists to aerial performances, all set to a live band and a pair of nouveau opera singers. Throughout the show, the emotional heart belongs to the Clowns – a lovestruck duo who are surprisingly genuinely funny as they continuously step on each other’s romantic advances. Also present is the Fool, in search of power, here represented by a glowing staff. The clowns are both grounding and funny and inject a human vein to the otherwise superhuman show, but the Fool doesn’t provide much more than a loose narrative gluing the various acts of artistry together. When the two narratives join up late in the second half, it’s clear that the Clowns simply deliver more with their story than the Fool does.

See more photos of Cirque Du Soleil HERE

Of course you’re not coming to Cirque Du Soleil for the story, you’re coming for the thrill of a cutting-edge circus act, and with Alegria: In A New Light, thrills absolutely deliver in spades. Every act is a top notch rendition of its particular genre of circus performance. The fire dancers are the best fire dancers you’ve seen. The trapeze artists, the most daring. The contortionists, the most gleefully impossible. There’s simply no denying the joy you get when someone is freefalling 30 feet in the air, or dancing in a blinding confetti snowstorm, or controlling a human-sized slinky with just their hips. All the fantastical feats of performance you hope to see from Cirque Du Soleil are present and accounted for in this wildly fun collection.

See more photos of Cirque Du Soleil HERE

Unfortunately, the incredible performances are not matched by the set design. The set is a surprisingly minimal Mad Max styled backdrop – a wall of spikes. There are hints of wonder, like when the back wall is suddenly made of mirrors, or when panels in the floor reveal themselves to be hiding trampolines, but it is disappointingly devoid of colour or imagination. One might say the minimalist set means you’re not distracted from the incredibly impressive performers, who do deserve all of your attention – but when you’re hoping to be dazzled, you ought to be dazzled in every element of the show, and the set is a big part of that. It’s a chance for surprise and wonder, and it’s a shame it was not taken advantage of.

Ultimately, that’s a bit telling of the production as a whole. The show is thrilling in all the ways you’d expect, but does not deliver anything surprising. What you are hoping to see from a Cirque Du Soleil production is certainly here, but there’s no moment in the show that you didn’t see coming. This is a 30 year old show, but with Cirque Du Soleil, you always hope to see something new, and now, with this revival, what was once a cutting edge beacon of progress in the world of theatre has become one of nostalgia. Impressive feats of strength and agility remain impressive, but as a show, Cirque Du Soliel had evolved into a truly modern day circus: devilishly joyful, but awe-inspiring in a more comforting, familiar way.

Running Order:

Opening

Cyr Wheel

Clowns – Duel

Synchronized Trapeze Duo

Aristocrats Parade

Fire Knife Dance

Snowstorm

Interval

Aerial Straps

Clowns – Cleaning

Hula Hoops

Powertrack

Fall Of The Fool

Hand To Hand

Flying Trapeze

Finale

 

Photos By | Morris Shamah