By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
Published December 2, 2005
[Times photo: Lara Cerri]
Varekai performers dance in a dress rehearsal Wednesday at Tropicana Field. The show runs through the end of the month.
ST. PETERSBURG - At the start of Varekai the stage overflows with bizarre creatures: a green and black lizard, a man in black wearing a helmet topped by a lightbulb, a lavender sprite with a curlicue on its head, a blue reptile sprouting green protuberances.
This eye-popping tableau makes it plain that Eiko Ishioka's brilliant, otherworldly costume design is the driving force of the third Cirque du Soleil production to come to St. Petersburg. It opened a monthlong engagement under the blue and yellow Grand Chapiteau on Thursday night.
After its wild and woolly prelude, Varekai's momentum stalls a bit as the story is established. It is loosely based on the myth of Icarus, who fell to Earth when he flew too close to the sun and the wax holding on his wings melted.
In the Cirque version, written and directed by Dominic Champagne, Icarus (Anton Chelnokov) is a Byronic swain in feathery white, who lands in a jungle of shimmering poles. His solo flight, while wrapped in a net, is not very involving, and what passes for the story only intermittently takes hold during the show, which runs 21/2 hours, including intermission.
But people don't go to Cirque for the story, though when there is one that actually works (i.e., Quidam), the experience can be especially affecting. They go for the dazzling acrobatics, and Varekai delivers in its second number, with a troupe of high fliers in red and gold, vaulting from the feet of their partners, who are lying on their backs, legs straight up.
Cirque performers are superb athletes, and they have a generous, giving attitude that elevates them beyond the self-absorbed world of competitive sports. They are proud of what they can do, and they love to share it with the audience.
In an exciting feat of athleticism meshing with art, four strong, fearless women in aquamarine tights descend from high in the big top to perform on triple trapeze.
Cirque's supply of diminutive Chinese acrobats seems inexhaustible, and a trio in blue display a typically inventive combination of talents, tossing and spinning bowls on rope in the air while tossing and spinning themselves. Red-clad Georgian dancers blast off to wind up Act 1, moving incredibly fast to the hard-driving beat.
Several signature Cirque performers are in the second act, and the finale is sensational. The Atherton twins, Andrew and Kevin, are beautiful mirror images of each other, in black headdresses and skimpy bodysuits, in a soaring aerial straps number.
Octavio Alegria is an exuberant juggler of balls, straw hats, bowling pins, whatever. Contortionist Irina Naumenko is a sensual dream in sequins, blending the grace of ballet and the power of gymnastics in hand balancing on canes.
Russian Swings concludes the show with an inspired piece of equipment that hurls daredevils through the air onto huge sails, all to pulsating music - except for one exquisitely timed moment of silence.
In between acts of derring do, Varekai has a complement of clowns, such as the magician and his frumpy blond assistant, or the balladeer in pursuit of an elusive spotlight. Their routines usually go on too long, but they do provide a breather.
Violaine Corradi has composed a lively score, with continuous music by a seven-piece band as well as sound effects ranging from buzzing insects and bird chirps to a jackhammer and bagpipes. The violin and Jew's harp and Andean pipes stay in your ear amid the crashing rock chords. Isabelle Corradi (sister of the composer) and Craig Jennings are the singers, and they bring a zestful spirit to lyrics mostly in a made-up language, a Cirque trademark.
If anyone has seen Cirque shows in the past and thinks that there's only so much to be done with acrobatics in the service of art, that, in effect, once you've seen a few trapeze and contortion acts, you've seen them all, no matter how astonishing, then Varekai will come as an exhilarating surprise. Cirque keeps coming up with new thrills.
