Wednesday 3 September 2008

A Night at The Circus


My gorgeous friend Em scored two complimentary tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Darlion and she kindly invited me to accompany her to the show last night. It's exactly ten years since I saw Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco when the company first came to Australia. Funnily enough I saw that production for free as well when I was writing for a local magazine in Brisbane. Darlion is a celebration of the 4 elements that maintain the natural order: air, water, fire and earth. It had a definite Chinese theme and at times I thought I was watching a miniature re-enactment of the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. You can never have enough drums and red latterns I find.

The show was a visual feast but alas like the last time I saw Cirque du Soleil, I felt like I was watching yoga set to music and after about an hour I found myself drifting off. There is only so many times you can see someone do the splits upside down. From a kid's point of view though I think the show is fantasy at it's very best; the vibrant colours, the elaborate make-up and of course the amazing acrobatics. I still remember being absolutely amazed as a child when the Moscow Circus came to Australia 25 years ago. It was escapist ecstacy. So escapist that half the circus defected here in the 80s.

As an adult though I guess I'm an old fashioned circus kind of guy where the clowns were drunk and abusive and the animals were mal-nourished and psychotic. I remember as a kid going to the local Ashton's Circus and being truly terrified of the slightly too aggressive clowns and the very tired irrational animals. As an adult, I'd find that far more entertaining than watching Suzy Flexible fold herself into an envelope.

As I always do when I am faced with boredom, I search for hot men. There were none in the production surprisingly; maybe it was because they dressed like the cast of Farscape. In the audience however, it was couplehood; hence full of bored hot straight men who'd "done the right thing" by taking their respective wives and girlfriends to a night under the Grand Chapiteau. Em and I were happily entertained in the second half of the evening browsing the audience going "Oooo isn't he gorgeous?". There were plenty to keep our eyes occupied.

As per usual the cost of drinks and food was that of a Monte Carlo bar. $6 for a soft drink, $9 for a glass of wine which came in a plastic cup and a tub of popcorn and a packet of chocolates for $12. I spent my entire interest rate cut in just one interval.

Still it was a very pleasant evening and far better than a night at home in front of the box.


And to other news….

Thanks to everyone who wrote to me re my last blog entry. I am totally fine. I've come to the conclusion I should write action novels as my last entry made the situation sound a lot worse than it really was. Having said that, I think it was the jolt I required to get my arse into gear regarding a few changes that have to be made in the future. I shall keep you posted.

Cxx

2 comments:

Monty said...

Oooh, you should've offered to "entertain" one (or more) of the bored hot straight men at interval...would've made for an interesting action novel!!! ;-)

Anonymous said...

I at least hope that the excursion with Em to see Cirque got your mind off what had been bothering you so much.