A Night at the Cirque

Tonight, I went to see Dralion, a Cirque du Soleil production making a brief stop here in the Denver area. It's actually more than a decade old, having been around long enough that several acts have been changed since its original incarnation. Yet it just keeps touring all over the place, going as strong as ever.

This was the first time I'd seen Dralion, and it was far and away my favorite of the touring Cirque shows I've seen. It even eclipsed several of the standing shows I've seen. Part of the reason for this is that the structure invited easy comparison to other Cirque shows.

The show was filled with similar acts to those of other Cirque productions. There was a juggler, a Diabolo routine, a trampoline act, a couple performing an aerial ballet, a jumprope piece, and more. Indeed, there were only one or two acts that felt wholly different from other Cirque shows I'd seen (though they were highlights). What set Dralion above the pack was that -- at least, in the second act -- the performances of these routines were far more clever and well-done than I'd ever seen in other Cirque productions.

The music was a particularly interesting element of this production. The soundtrack of Dralion is more percussion driven than most Cirque shows, and the vocalists were featured in the show much more dramatically than in other shows. One of the singers was even wired up and suspended over the stage, as much a part of the show as some of the acrobats.

Another distinctive element of Dralion was its use of the clown characters. Every Cirque show has them. Most of the shows also make use of an audience plant. This was the first Cirque show I'd seen that, after playing around with the plant at great length, came clean and revealed to everyone that "yes, this guy is part of the show." More interesting, the final clown act of the show was a "montage" that lampooned most of the acts and characters from earlier in the show -- it was like Cirque playfully making fun of itself.

If Dralion tours near you, I'd definitely recommend seeing it. It entertained me, even though I believe it's the tenth Cirque production I've seen. And I'm sure it would thrill anyone who hasn't seen one before.