Cirque du Soleil’s first ice skating show is in town. Here’s what we did on the opening night of the show.
Light on complexity, high on drama
Pages of Glory. That’s all I could think about during the two hours of Cirque du Soleil’s Crystal. There were many legs. Legs attached to feet. Feet wearing ice skates. Sometimes people wear ice skates he stopped for some people, it can be achieved through some kind of game magic.
Eventually I made peace with the real possibility that I could see a small part of the neck on the ice, but strangely I found myself too preoccupied with the less dangerous aspects of the show. A solo entertainer, who was throwing mountains of snow at kids in the audience before the lights even went out, made me (and all the kids) laugh. A professional juggler who seemed rightly proud of his skills impressed me more than the skiers in the background.
I think I finally won with Crystal’s performances. Nothing really impressed me – living in an age where everyone has seen everything on the internet makes it hard to be surprised by what is arguably still a “death bug”. I’ve seen Pinky walk around the Spark Arena while performing live, so seeing the gymnasts walking around on the ice is just a little bit more fun. But if you look at Crystal as a theater show just it happens having distractions as well, then it’s more fun. / Stewart Sowman-Lund
He loved plays, he hated Muzak blankets
Having attended the opening of Cirque Crystal in Christchurch, and being one of the amazing Southern VIP guests like Ruud the Bug Man and the presenters of What Now, I was very impressed with the eagles. Starting the show before even a snowball fight in the whole arena, and after giving one of the most beautiful scenes in a slow dance with the soon-to-be headless lamp lady, her slapstick style captured the whole room. as effectively as the chairlifts and rope climbing businesses.
What I didn’t care about was the strange romantic deviation in the second half (How old is this protagonist? Why does he suddenly need to find love with a glittery 40-year-old bald 40-year-old on a trapeze?). Also, am I the only one who burst out laughing when Sia’s amazing ‘Chandelier’* came out of nowhere after what was initially no lyrics (followed later by Beyonce’s ‘Halo’)? For a show of imagination and creativity, I could have done without the Love Island UK cover songs that were toned down. / Alex Casey
(*Opening night in Auckland definitely didn’t have the Chandelier cover, and it seems there wasn’t the entire episode. It’s unclear if this change was a one-off.)
A nine-year-old girl who loves sports is thinking
“I’m so sad,” said my daughter on the way to the playground. He is nine years old and every Monday he spends an hour and a half training at the gym doing deadlifts so I don’t often get to see him do them. When he gets home, he recovers by eating a pasta dinner while watching Cirque du Soleil videos on YouTube. It would be fair to say that in the history of Cirque du Soleil shows no better performance has matched my daughter’s passion than what we saw at the Spark Arena last night.
Crystal’s story, as far as I can tell, is about a young girl who runs away from home and joins an ice skating competition. There is nothing he wants to do more than to do. And so, for nearly two hours, that’s what he and the rest of the Canadian crew behind the winter, ice show do. They fly over ridges and circle the sky and jump off giant swaying trees like they’re extras in a Mad Max sequel. It’s a swirly, sleek, death-defying stunt that makes figure skating look easy when it’s not.
Yes, there are strange things that this man did not understand: how are the office workers and their bags? Why do they all suddenly start playing ice hockey? What about the military snow camo vibe? (Is the answer to all of this: because they are in Canada?) But I found as much joy in seeing my daughter’s reaction to Crystal as I did to Crystal herself. When we were walking to our car later, he panicked again. He jumped up and down, dancing, and said: “The only thing wrong with this show is that it makes me want to go to the circus right now.” Unfortunately, it was past bedtime, but I held her hand tightly in case she might run away to join the game. / Chris Schulz
I would have liked to jump more
The real star of Crystal was the little kid who, when the clown’s cart fell over, laughed so loudly and happily that it made the whole stage crack up. The power and embrace of the silly is what Cirque du Soleil does best. There were many to do more than I expected from a company famous for its games. The trailer was visually appealing and a good use of the story in a way that didn’t require three turns or a mini-lane. The kids loved him and so did my friend who I’m starting to realize is a huge fan of comedy.
Where practice was seen as harmful was in plotting and sounding words. I couldn’t tell you what was going on in the story except that the main character (via VO) used the words “somewhen china” talking about the imaginary future and it made me laugh out loud. Apparently, audiences don’t flock to Cirque du Soleil for dialogue, which means that Crystal would have been fun (for me at least) without any dialogue. I was hoping to see figure skating (check), curls (check) and handstands (check). I don’t think it needs pop music or good vocals. At the end, when the story was finished, all the actors came off the ice and only showed what they could do as a curtain. I would happily watch a full episode of this. / Madeleine Chapman
Cirque du Soleil: Crystal runs at Auckland’s Spark Arena until Sunday night. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.
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