TOTEM

Cirque du Soleil's January shows at the Royal Albert Hall are always packed so it is curious that the reviews are generally lack lustre. No one ever criticises the acts which are amongst the best you will see anywhere but the reviewers basically find the Cirque style to be smewhere between naff, pretentious and "a load of wank".

Not so the audiences who love these shows (note to reviewers ... steer clear of the presspack and listen to the paying audience they love these shows ... note to publications, stop sending reviewers who "don't get it"!) and not so this reviewer. I don't go to a Cirque show to be educated, I do not confuse the "theme" with an attempt to create an actual "plot" and I do not that the people out there on stage are trying to push some great philosophical truth down my throat! What I do expect, and what I get in spades, is a seriously thought through entertainment with a consistent look, feel and sound and with terrific acts integrated into the flow. The reason I love Cirque so much is, as much as anything, the rest of the Circus worldwho still think that simply presenting me with a tent containing a bunch of acts (however good) separated by clowns (however weak) is a "great spectacle" ... Cirque is never mundane, never just ordinary, always a treat.

Enough of my pretention then and on to the show ... Totem was for me the most enjoyable of the Cirque shows since Alegria; the music is powerful (yes, I shall get the CD), the set very watchable and the acts superb. A few comments of course. For me the clowning has never peaked at the level of Slava but then that's a very high peak, in this one I was about to be disappointed when the speedboat arrived - that convinced me that clowning is back centre stage for these shows. The set of this show is superficially less impressive and intrusive than some previous sets, not a bad thing, but the tricks they play with it are actually wonderful - in the traditional sense of the word, the children seated around me were trully filled with wonder at the way the water and other effects looked - they asked their parents genuinely if it was real water and there were actual pauses before the parents were convinced enough to answer! Loved this new slant. The acts, well, despite what I'd read I found the acts exciting and trully mind-boggling but perhaps not as good as some previous shows - though we were not treated to the trapeze act which I believe is spectacular .... I think injury got in the way. By the way, I do understand the use of safety wires but sadly they do detract from the effect ;-( The juggler was great, what a terric way to teach conic sections!

In conculsion ... this is one of the great Cirque shows ... not perhaps a Saltimbanco in my mind but none the less great ... definitely one to see if you get a chance!