The troupe's production of TOTEM wows with their incredible acrobatic language and stunning circus acts at the premiere of its Singapore stop.
Nothing beats a great night out to enjoy a spectacular performance by skilled and talented individuals who make the impossible look easy. Housed in the iconic blue and yellow tent, Totem starts off the 2-hour show with a Crystal Man, dressed in a sequinned suit with thousands of reflective materials that resembled a disco ball. As he descends to the circular stage with frog-inspired acrobats swinging on the bars of its cage in synchrony, it signals the start of the company’s big-budget, no-animal spectacle.
Carrying the ‘Cirque’ name means one can expect nothing less than a sensational stage show, but as with most circus-theme performances, there will be acts that stand out more than the others, and more often than not, those are the acts that require a higher level of difficulty and some that can be considered as ‘death-defying’. The clowns of circus tours are there provide comic relief and are often the ones that interact with the audience the most. For Totem, the clowns of the show managed to put a slight modern twist to it by giving them a ‘character’ tagged to their performance - one as the overly-romantic desperado, Valentino; and the ping-pong comedian, the Clown Fisherman. While both are rather humorous acts by itself, but when put together with their troupe mates, it doesn’t stand out in terms of entertainment value.
Having said that, majority of the acts will leave you screaming and cheering with excitement, such as the Fixed Trapeze Duo; Unicycles and Bowls; Roller Skates, and Russian Bars.
One that this reviewer particularly liked was the Fixed Trapeze Duo. The male-female couple act out in a game of romantic teasing on a fixed trapeze. With sharp and precise movements from the duo, there’s gasps from the audience when one hangs from one hand from their partner, and chuckles when they start their adorable love-chasing antics.
The female quintet on unicycles with bowls on their head, are possibly the night’s star performance. Apart from balancing on the 2-3 metre-long unicycle, they have to navigate around the stage in sync, and catch the flying bowls on their head, thrown using their legs. Towards the end of their segment, one of the performer catches the numerous bowls on her head from her counterparts, without missing any of it. That’s what we call perfection.
Apart from the various acts, the technical display in this production, as well as the out-of-the-world costuming are very note-worthy factors in Totem. There are a lot of environment-like visuals projected onto the stage. These movie images adds to its magical realm - from choppy waters to volcanic larva; dense grass patches to a starry sky.
Cirque Du Soleil TOTEM traces the evolution of human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. It also sends a friendly reminder that we are purely humans, and not these ‘superhumans’ with out-of-the-world abilities.
Cirque Du Soleil TOTEM
Date: 28 Oct - 6 Dec 2015
Time: 8pm
(Purchase your tickets, here!)