a night at the circus
Last night, Henry stayed with my parents and had a great time. He was delivered to us safe and sound, if not really ready for a nap, at noon today. (Interestingly, it is now well over an hour since he went down and I can still hear him playing awake in his crib. hmmm.) Jason and I had a nice date night out, which made for a very good birthday celebration. We dropped off the boy and then had woefully mediocre Thai food. Sad considering the wealth of great food in Portland but we picked the restaurant for location and convenience and an apparently outdated recommendation.
The night then got better as we were headed for the Cirque du Soleil. The overall experience had its ups and downs but the performers were truly amazing. Indescribably, really. The strength and grace of the dancers/acrobats was like nothing I have ever seen. But, since I can never just leave well enough alone, I must note that the seats were very narrow and hard and that at times the music was deafening. There was no plot holding the acts together at all but it didn’t really matter because the performers’ talent stood on its own. At times there was almost too much going on to focus but again that’s better than if it were boring. Outside of the performance itself, it felt like a real circus with carnies hawking overpriced food and drinks and an overwhelming amount of memorabilia crap that people seemed to be eating up. Definitely not a usual night out- as if we usually went out anymore!
I must also admit that part way through he second act my mind began to wander and think about how these people train and perform together every day and presumably live together in different cities for months at a time. The performances are so physical and intense that they must really trust and rely on each other for their own safety. Are they friends? Are there cliques and jealousy issues? Do they have sex with each other? What happens if they break up? What if they then get together with someone else? There were also two child performers and I kept wondering if they had been sold to the circus. As much as I hate/pretend to hate reality TV, if a “Cirqu du Soleil: The Truth Under the Big Top” were to air, you know I would watch it.
The night then got better as we were headed for the Cirque du Soleil. The overall experience had its ups and downs but the performers were truly amazing. Indescribably, really. The strength and grace of the dancers/acrobats was like nothing I have ever seen. But, since I can never just leave well enough alone, I must note that the seats were very narrow and hard and that at times the music was deafening. There was no plot holding the acts together at all but it didn’t really matter because the performers’ talent stood on its own. At times there was almost too much going on to focus but again that’s better than if it were boring. Outside of the performance itself, it felt like a real circus with carnies hawking overpriced food and drinks and an overwhelming amount of memorabilia crap that people seemed to be eating up. Definitely not a usual night out- as if we usually went out anymore!
I must also admit that part way through he second act my mind began to wander and think about how these people train and perform together every day and presumably live together in different cities for months at a time. The performances are so physical and intense that they must really trust and rely on each other for their own safety. Are they friends? Are there cliques and jealousy issues? Do they have sex with each other? What happens if they break up? What if they then get together with someone else? There were also two child performers and I kept wondering if they had been sold to the circus. As much as I hate/pretend to hate reality TV, if a “Cirqu du Soleil: The Truth Under the Big Top” were to air, you know I would watch it.
posted by mama without instructions at 1:43 PM
1 Comments:
I'm waiting for those kids' memoir: "Sold to the Cirque: life on the road".
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