I grew up seeing snippets of Cirque du Soleil’s wonders on the Royal Variety Performance (back when it featured acts worth watching), never quite believing how the tricks and talents could be real. Somehow though, they really, really are and I found proof at the Royal Albert Hall, where Koozå is on show until 14th February. This particular production began its run in Montréal back in 2007 and this is the first time it has made it to the UK.
The Canadian troupe was founded in 1984 by two street performers, who crafted its edgy mix of straightforward clowns and trapezes with eclectic and ever-daring turns, all told using musical and story-telling splendour. This story starts with The Innocent, a childlike figure who tragically can’t get his beloved kite to fly. ‘Koozå’ means ‘magical container’ and it is from this that a fantastical world explodes, opening The Innocent’s eyes to sights and sounds he couldn’t ever have imagined, suggesting a realm of infinite possibility (that might even help his sad little kite). He stumbles around the stage, looking as gobsmacked as the audience feels, exhibiting the naïve and pure response that one is meant to have to the various spectacles on show. That response does not just contain pleasure and amazement but fear, too, not least at the wily Trickster – an MC of sorts who controls the magic with a flick of his wand, which he brandishes with feline flourishes and a camp kind of relish.
Cirque sets the bar stratospherically high for performers. These ones don’t just walk the tightrope, they run it, leap frog on it, fence and cycle on it (whilst carrying someone else on a chair on a pole). The contortionists don’t just bend this way or that, one of them sits on her own head and manages to make her body run around it in circles, defying anatomy with a knowing little smile. You don’t just see a clown stumbling around on a unicycle, you get a love dance on one – the gentleman lifting his lady as though they were dancing on ice.
The real breathtaker is the Wheel of Death: two men propelling themselves the height of the hall in two giant, intertwined hamster wheels which swing round and round. The men appear as gladiators, entering the arena from a fiery pit, and proceed to run and jump inside these moving wheels. Then they get on top of them to skip and leap and fall through the air whilst revolving at breakneck speed, literally – not a harness in sight. I heard grown men screech.
Koozå lauds itself for taking the show back to the roots of circus entertainment, hence the hefty time allowance given to its comedy characters: the King of Fools and his Tweedledum and Tweedledumber jesters. Their pre-show antics certainly warm up the crowd and I will own that their interspersions obligingly allow one’s heart rate to return to something nearing normal amidst the frenzy onstage, but their slapstick routine wears slightly thin. The programme describes the king as “the most burlesque of all characters” but pantomime rings a louder bell. The pickpocket does an impressive turn, robbing a bemused audience member of his watch, wallet, keys, tie, etc. and though this all provides general jollity, it is somewhat overindulged, making for a show nearing three hours that is just that bit too long. I wanted the acrobats again instead!
Nonetheless I wouldn’t have missed it for the world and, as always with Cirque, the music is provided by a live band, thus rousing the mood even further. The musicians govern from a vast, moving platform on the stage, creating a buzz in the air with their high-energy sets that have an Indian theme to evoke an exotic, mysterious aura.
I have never seen a standing ovation rise faster and my hands were raw from so much clapping. The superhuman feats on show make for the most stunning of spectacles and, whether you’re a fan of slapstick or not, there is no getting around the mastery of the showmanship or the level of bravery displayed by Cirque du Soleil’s performers. Koozå is unashamedly flamboyant and in-your-face (I mean it – beware the audience interaction) but undeniably exciting and simply must be seen.
Cirque du Soleil’s Koozå is at The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AP, until Thursday 14th February 2013. Running time approximately 3 hours including interval. For more information visit the website.
