Review: Cirque du Soleil, Liverpool Echo Arena

Mar 26 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

Cirque du Soleil at Liverpool Echo Arena _320

HIGH expectations ride on Cirque du Soleil productions these days and tickets in the region of £50 heighten them, so striking out in a new direction is a gamble.

While Delirium is set in the other worldly landscape that is broadly familiar to people who have seen productions like Saltimbanco, its focus on multimedia, and world and modern urban beats, set to a rock concert type backdrop, was new territory and the source of some uneasiness, sounding as it does like something the council would be keen for us to enjoy.

The story, not that you could particularly tell, was about an everyman exploring the world though his dreams and learning about togetherness and the slipperiness of time. Hence, attached to a large balloon, he travelled through Africa, Brazil, and under the sea, meeting lots of flexible people along the way.

Attaching multimedia to Cirque du Soleil dance and acrobatics produced with the unerring eye for jaw-droppingly lovely and weird that Cirque choreographers have, is a triumph, a marriage made in heaven.

The undersea scenes, with the projection of waving arms like seabed fronds, the fire in the African scenes, and the Brazilian carnvival woman whose dress forms a tent for dancers and acrobats to writhe under are simply beautiful. Also jaw-dropping, although in a different way, are the songs sung in English for the first time.

The songs, which punctuate the performance with depressing regularity add “meaning” to the action, via lyrics like “if we lend a hand, someone will take a stand” sung with nerve-shredding intensity over three notes, and backed by soft rock. Leaving aside the fact that the lyrics would make a Moldovian Eurovision entrant blush, more could have been done with the music and sound effects to heighten the sense of the “worlds” that the hero finds himself in.

All in all, a spectacle that is worth the entry price and the Echo Arena’s size means the effects don’t dwarf the live performances, which is what people are primarily there for.

Just don’t listen to the lyrics or you’ll be taking Delirium home with you.

emma.pinch@dailypost.co.uk

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

Cirque du Soleil performing Delirium at the Liverpool Echo Arena

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