Amaluna
Royal Albert Hall
12 January 2017
5 Stars
Book Tickets
Amaluna has returned for the second year running to the Royal Albert Hall, having claimed the title of Cirque Du Soleil’s most successful London show ever and it’s no wonder. I’m really not sure there are enough words to describe this latest production from a company that has re-imagined circus and created some of the most dazzling, creative and mind-blowing productions I’ve seen.
Let me start by saying I am a fan of Cirque du Soleil. I marvelled at their London productions but really had my eyes opened when I experienced some of their “sit-down” productions created for the MGM hotel chain in Las Vegas. Shows like Ka, O, Love, and Zumanity, blew my mind. Amaluna is perhaps their best show to date in the UK, but it is also the first show where I was left to try to interpret the show without directorial notes as the press were not supplied with such notes or a programme this year. So when you read this review, you are being given thoughts from me as an audience member whose desire was to be entertained – pure and simple.
Amaluna seems to be a distant island, my initial thought was that it might be Paradise Island, later dubbed Themyscira, the mythical home of Wonder Woman which was inhabited by Amazons, a warrior race of women living free from men, but later I’m led to believe that Cirque may have melded this myth with Shakespeare’s anonymous island from The Tempest. It’s an exotic place inhabited by large lizards, peacocks and other creatures.
Miranda, a young girl, seems to be coming of age and the island inhabitants are celebrating until a shipwreck brings some bedraggled sailors to shore, one of whom falls in love with Miranda. Through trials, he wins Miranda’s heart and gets the blessing of the Hippolyta/ Prospero leader of the Amazons leading to their union. At least that’s what I thought it might be about. I was a little too distracted by what I was watching to actually care about plot.
Using an all-female band this Cirque du Soleil production has a heavy rock – glam look to it. The Enyaesque – nondescript language that Cirque seems to have developed as a soundtrack to their shows is largely intact and it sounds spectacular.
Favourite performance moments this time around included a troupe of Glamazons on multiple bars, multiple ball juggling by the lizard performer, and an amazing balancing section on the site of the large glass chalice all of which were wonderful. The opening of Act Two with acrobats on seesaws and the final act where pure acrobatic ability replaced the need for any apparatus at all had most of the people around me stunned with its brilliance.
There are times when these incredible performers make it look so easy that you really begin to doubt that these acts are difficult. Very, very occasionally you see a small slip (and there was one small one that I saw on Opening Night which must have hurt) and you realise it takes precision and immense skill to make a Cirque show appear effortless.
I must also say that the site of the Romeo / Suitor character going up a 30ft pole in seconds parallel to the pole still has me disbelieving what I saw.
I think what I am trying to say here is that whether or not you can work out what Amaluna is about, if indeed it is about anything at all, you are sure to have an enormously entertaining evening at the Royal Albert Hall. Cirque Du Soleil has worked out exactly how to bedazzle and audience and they do it year after year, in production after production around the world. They create worlds of stunning wonderment with some of the most incredible talents.
Once again, it has been an extraordinary experience to step into the world of Cirque Du Soleil and with Amaluna, they are building on their phenomenal success and talent. What a great way to start the year!
