Cirque du Soleil CRYSTAL
Just...amazing!
RainyDayMagazine went to see Cirque du Soleil’s new show CRYSTAL at Boston University’s Agganis Arena recently.
For readers who have been to any of the previous Cirque shows, CRYSTAL has all of the oh-my-gawd-that’s-amazing acrobatic insanity/prowess as their other shows, but all of it—ALL OF IT—is made even more oh-my-gawd-ering because almost everyone does it on ice skates!!!
The fun and funny pre-show show, as the arena filled up.
It’s hard to describe any Cirque du Soleil show, because it’s many things to many people, a la:
- “This is an amazing exhibition of the athletic/balletic/flexibletic ability of the human form;”
- “This is a completely dazzling spectacle of technological wizardry;” and
- “Duuude, this is just like that trip I was on the last time I did qualudes…” (no-one in the RainyDay office said that).
Yes, this is exactly what you think it is: A man is going to fly off that rope and land on that enormous mattress-shaped hassock. ON ICE.
Sort of roller-derby-y, but the goal is to NOT bang into each other. Plus ice skates. No, I don’t know how they do it, either. (Note: this is not a time-lapse photo, this is four skaters.)
DO NOT DROP HER! THAT’S ICE DOWN THERE! Plus there’s those guys from Assassin’s Creed: Climate Change… (NOTE: he did not drop her)
Along with a new story—concerning teenage rebellion, teenage angst, and falling through the ice while trying to skate through said rebellion/angst—the creators make fantastic use of digital projections…like having the patterns on (under?) the ice follow the skaters as they moved. It looked like they were skating through pools of bioluminescence algae. SO VERY COOL.
There is so much to this show, so many intriguing parts to the story and so many—SO MANY—amazing/funny/breathtaking elements, that it’s not really possible to describe it. It’s best to go without any knowledge of “what it’s about” and just let the show reveal itself to you.
One can, however, describe one’s response to the show: overwhelming awe. Of everything: the participants, the light and sound effects, the staging, the flow, the funny bits, the holding your breath bits. All of it was extraordinarily high-quality.
“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” Kinda.
RainyDay wasn’t really sure what to expect, but we were completely taken in by the quality and effortlessness of the entire show.
“Thank you for thanking us! We had fun and we hope you did too!”
The show is in Boston until June 12th, and then continues its worldwide tour. Ticket prices vary, as you’d expect, from reasonable to crazy high, but every seat has excellent viewing. It is really, REALLY, worth seeing.
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