Le Noir - The Dark Side of Cirque.
Director and choreographer Neil Dorward. Composer Julian Wiggins. Costume designer Angela Aaron. Lighting Designer Christopher Boon Casey. Resident Director/Co Manager Mathieu Laplante. Creative Producer Simon Painter. Executive Producer Tim Lawson. Canberra Theatre. Canberra theatre Centre. May 6-10 2015
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Noir – the colour of the night;
dark, mysterious, magical, the haven of hidden fears and seductive delights.
This is Le Noir. The dark side of Cirque.
Before you pass through to the dark side however, there is light : Blanc and
colour: Rouge, where the dazzling luminescence of the circus arts mingle with
the hot-blooded wonder of astonishing aerial acrobatics and the steely, sinewy
might of muscular magnificence and incredible bodily balance. Together Blanc,
Rouge and Noir combine to delight the eye, excite the senses and bewitch with
the splendour of the spectacle and the spectacular.
Le Noir’s phenomenal
international company of circus artists transform the Canberra Theatre into a
wonderland of sheer strength, grace and awe-inspiring prowess. Master of
Ceremonies, Salvador Salangsang Jr. entices the audience, some of whom are
seated at tables on the stage and others in the large, packed auditorium of the
Canberra Theatre, into the unknown. On occasion, he beckons unwitting audience
members onto the stage to the hilarious delight of an audience that revels in
an innocent victim’s embarrassment or applauds the spirited and skilful
participant. It’s all done in the spirit of good fun, and allows members of the
company to change their costumes or prepare for the next act.
One after another, the acts amaze
and astound, carefully choreographed under Neil Dorward’s direction with style
and flair, at times elegant and sumptuous and later in Black, sensual and
seductive, bordering on the erotic, though in perfect taste. Many of the acts
are familiar to aficionados of the circus arts, such as David Matz’s Cyr Wheel
or Anna Ostapenko’s Hand Balance in WHITE,
Marie-Christine Fournier and Louis-David Simoneau’s Trapeze in RED or Yulia Lytvnchuk and Valerii
Volynet’s Pas de Deux and Gediminas Pavlovicius’s Rolla Bolla on metal
cylinders. Familiar, yes, but never like this, never with such precision, iron
concentration and breath-taking risk-taking. One gasps in anticipation as
Fournier is thrown into the air by Simoneau and in an instant of peril is
caught safely in his arms. We hold our breath, frozen in the moment before
bursting into rapturous and relieved applause. Le Noir has us completely in its thrall.
Some acts take this show to an
entirely different level. Valeri Tsvetkov and Yani Stoyanov’ Strong men
balancing act is almost excruciating in its display of physical strength and
endurance as one balances on the neck of the other or together they create a
spirit level of arms and legs. Denis Ignatov-Radokhov’s shapespinning of metal
pyramids and a cube, bathed in a kaleidoscope of colour from Christopher
Boon-Casey’s spectacular lighting design is beyond belief as he reaches his
spinning finale by balancing the huge cube frame on his forehead. Pavlovicius
defies belief as his tower of metal cylinders continues to grow and he completes
a full circle upon the precariously balanced cylinders.
Throughout, Julian Wiggins’s
composition maintains the tension, the excitement, the surprise and the mystery
of Le Noir’s enticing wonderment.
Emcee Salangsang exudes a joyful, mischievous enthusiasm and keeps the show
moving, adding his own clownish humour with a large red ball routine into which
he disappears. It is another mark of the brilliant originality of Le Noir and not since the magic of Philipe genty or
the daring of Cirque de Soleil or the fantasy of Slava’s Snowstorm have I been so captivated by the artistry of Le Noir’s performers.
Only the setting distracted from
the complete immersion in the show’s brilliance. Le Noir has a relatively
small company, and the staging suggests a certain intimacy and rapport with the
audience. A circus tent or the
fabulous Spiegeltent may have been a more suitable venue, but then the Canberra
Theatre offers a far larger paying audience to be enthralled by the dazzling,
unforgettable experience of Le Noir- The
Dark Side of Cirque. Don’t miss it. But leave your young children at home.
They could be too easily tempted to run away from home to join the circus.
