Lucy's perfume

This evening I visited Cirque du Soleil's show called 'Love', featuring tunes from the Beatles. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I consider Cirque du Soleil to be more performance arts rather than circus, and have seen other shows by them including 'la Nouba' and 'Quidam'. The fusion of Beatles music and a Beatles theme worked well for me combining some signature Cirque moments with a fair treatment of the Beatle's songs.

This was no Beatles tribute or attempt to run chronologically through the catalogue. I liked it for this, because it avoided the trap of somehow preserving the Beatles in a pure 1960-1970 time-warp. By treating it as music to be performed to, I'm sure it is a more realistic extension of the thinking of the music in its time. Before Sergeant Pepper, no one knew what to expect from that album, and I think the same can apply to the modern Cirque du Soleil treatment. There was a very slight Beatles chronology to the events (post World War 2, Beatles form, Beatles in Germany, Beatles get big, Beatles go psychedelic etc.), but this was a very lightly applied motif compared with the general spectacle of great staging to accompany Beatles songs.

For a Brit, it was interesting to see an American lens applied to this visioning, with quirky portrayals of Britain. At one point I nearly gasped when blazing Klu Klux Klan crucifixes depicted the time when the Beatles fell out of favour with middle America after Lennon's famous 'Christ' statement.

By great fortune my seat number was A9, which happened to be right in the middle of the front row, so my view was completely immersive for the show. Count 5 from the right in the front row to see my seat. The 2000 seat setting is 'in the round', with a square-ish stage which was divided into four areas before the show started. There were gentle back projections of clouds as we all walked in and instrumental Beatles numbers playing before the show kicked in.

And kick in it did. Loud, fast paced and breathtaking acrobatics along with Beatle's characters (Mr Kite, Sergeant Pepper, The Eggman etc.) driving the tacit storyline. When I saw La Nouba, or other Cirque du Soleil shows, there has been a general reference to the circus aspect as the show runs, with different acts such as high-wire and dancers appearing in turn.

This show was extremely seamless with just couple of slower moments when presumably some machinery or costume change was under way. It is difficult to describe the vaulting lofty approach used, with truly 3D staging, high into the air being used for many of the numbers. Psychedlic bubbles, rooftops appearing from under the floor and then flying into the roof, silk parachutes enveloping the entire audience from a flying bed, spiraling, floating, elevated dancers all made appearances. Signature elements of Cirque du Soleil were there too, such as appearance of characters ahead of their main activities and quirky little trains of strange objects running across the stage.

Sound was clear and sounded like my own personal surround stereo. I subsequently discovered it was! I had three speakers built around my seat; 2 in front and one behind my head.

And we had songs from every era of the Beatles, all of them familiar, yet often remixed in mainly gentle ways.

And being so close to everything, I could breathe Lucy's perfume from the sky as she swooped past, trailing glittering diamond lights.