“Amaluna – Evolution (Devolution) on tour – Details of
my disappointment with the viewing of Amaluna in Seattle”
By: Steve Long – West Hartford, Connecticut (USA)
I’d seen Amaluna when it premiered in Montreal in April 2012.
Purchasing two tickets then as I usually do, the first time to just
sit back and enjoy the show, the second time to ‘watch’ the show, if
you will. I was so impressed with what Diane Paulus and her Creative
Team were doing that I jumped at a chance to see the show a third
time. In July of that year I’d seen Amaluna again as part of the 3rd
Annual Montreal Completement Cirque festival and was disappointed. It
had lost energy, perhaps it had become routine for the cast. In
traveling to Seattle in February 2013 to see it again as part of the
“Amaluna In Seattle” weekend I was hoping for a return to the energy
of the Premiere while expecting a ‘routine’ level of energy. In seeing
the show I was presented with a third option. There is a new set of
artistic sensibilities being imposed on the work of Diane Paulus.
These artistic sensibilities are not necessarily complementary to her
work. I found that they consistently drained the show of its magic,
added bits that detracted from what I perceived as the artistic intent
of the original and seemed to set the whole show into an overdrive
mode.
There was an artistic potential that I saw quite clearly in those
Premiere days. After those viewings I could see myself attending
Amaluna performances as often as I had attended performances of the
now retired ZED, without having to travel to the other side of the
world to do so. As I go over that Saturday evening show again and
again in my mind it makes me sad to feel that Cirque du Soleil does
not have, in-house, the creative talent necessary to ensure that
Amaluna would realize its full artistic potential throughout its run.
In the Premiere, the show opened with a shaft of light center stage
and a red piece of cloth swirling and dancing in the air. Was it a
projection? How were they doing that? It was magic. A flame, a doorway
for the audience into the world of Amaluna. As the full lights came up
and you saw the cast on stage you also saw the circle of fans that
provided the updraft that the cloth was dancing on. It was still
magic; A fire that the cast was gathering round as they paid homage to
Prospera and eventually to Miranda. The cloth can have a mind of its
own though. I think in the first viewing it fell over one of the fans.
Prospera motioned to one of the Amazons who pulled it free and it
danced again. The problem was dealt with in a way that emphasized
Prospera’s command of this place.
You were brought by magic into the world of Amaluna and introduced to
the hierarchy of the world. The world of Amaluna was quickly, simply
fixed in the minds of the audience. (Or most of them. You can’t
guarantee that everyone in an audience will grasp what you’re trying
to do.)
In Seattle, the shaft of light revealed a lump of cloth and a couple
of the circle of fans. Prospera came in and set the cloth flying. No
magic. It was just a trick and Prospera showed us how it was done.
Then the others came streaming in. Except for Lizard Cali (the Victor
Kee character). He stayed in the audience and moved around just enough
to be an annoyance, a distraction. For me Cali distracted from the
establishment of the world of Amaluna in the minds of the audience, he
detracted from the authority of Prospera by pulling focus away from
her to himself. To my mind this did not improve on what Diane Paulus
had originally created as the Cali character. For me he went from
presence to annoyance.
In the Premiere I remember that it was just Prospera and the Moon
Goddess involved when Prospera conjures up the storm. I don’t remember
all those people on stage as they were that Saturday night playing
being blown away. It distracted from Prospera and her powers, for me
it diminished the Prospera character. Also in the Premiere I think the
God and Goddess of the Wind kept their masks on throughout the
routine. In Seattle they ripped their masks off, reducing themselves
to humans doing a strap act.
And at the very end of that scene in Seattle they had Prospera center
stage, her face lit up like kids do on Halloween with flashlights, her
face with a hint of madness. This wasn’t in the Premiere. Prospera is
not an insane/mad character. This was, to my mind, Cheap Trick #1 on
the part of the people imposing their entertainment sensibilities on
Amaluna.
Next we have the castaways, the group of men arriving on the island
inside a net as a result of the storm. In the Premiere the first real
person to appear from underneath the net was Romeo. For Miranda this
was love at first sight and we in the audience could appreciate this
as this was the first normal guy to be seen from that grouping. (The
Captain, already free from the net, having an outlandish red
mustache.) In Seattle, before Romeo is pulled out we see some guy,
center stage, poke his head out of the net, with a small plastic
octopus on it. Cheap Trick #2. It might have been a funny sight gag
but it detracted from the audience’s participation in Miranda’s first
sighting of Romeo.
The person I saw in Seattle not was not the original Romeo, I don’t
know what happened to that person but that’s what happens on tour. The
person at the Premiere and in July had a difficult task as Miranda was
double-cast and he had to create a credible love at first sight
relationship with both women. He did it. This new guy was there but
there was no spark between him and Miranda that I could sense. Diane
Paulus is a theater director and likely helped the original Romeo
establish that connection. For the replacement all he likely had were
stage directions and he remembered his stage directions well.
The next bits confused me at first during the Premiere until I
realized that Romeo had been given free run to explore the island. As
I remember, those bits were more distinct in the Premiere where in
Seattle it seemed that they were stepping all over each other’s toes.
I remember in the Premiere Romeo watching the Peacock Goddess’ dance
and near the end reaching out, almost touching her, but not. It
suggested a frail beauty. In Seattle the Peacock Goddess was touching
him and stroking him. This would only make sense in the later bath
sequence, and like many changes it wouldn’t enhance the characters or
the storyline as far as I was concerned.
As I remember from the Premiere, the Moon Goddess didn’t get involved
with the water, that was all Miranda’s act. That the Moon Goddess was
now getting in the water and spinning and spraying didn’t bother me
too much, I could see it as the Moon consecrating the bath. But that
likely threw out more water than was originally planned for in the
Premiere because I remember seeing people mopping up water with towels
while the Amazon’s high bar/uneven bar act was in progress.
Something else that struck me upon looking back, the pace of the show
was really fast. I was really surprised when the high bar/uneven bar
act came out, I thought it was too soon but, no, that was its proper
place. It was in Seattle, home of Starbucks, so I’ve got to go with a
coffee joke – it’s like they just fed them lots of coffee before the
show started and let them go into caffeine overdrive.
Like moving objects, shows have momentum and you can’t have things
going really, really fast and expect that the audience will be able to
put on the brakes for a slow bit, you’ve got to give the audience a
chance to slow down. As I recall from the Premiere, the Moon Goddess’
ring routine was calm, slowing the audience down for Miranda’s
contortion/swimming routine and for the Miranda/Romeo bit. But in
Seattle, with all the spinning and splashing the high energy momentum
continued through to the Miranda bits. This had a negative impact not
so much on the Miranda bits but on the high bar/uneven bar routine
that followed. That’s a high energy act. It’s one thing to go from low
energy to high energy, the contrast helps the act stand out. But when
the audience is still carrying momentum from previous high energy
acts, there isn’t much needed to bring things back up to high energy.
The contrast, thus the act’s ability to stand out, is significantly
reduced.
Back to Miranda and her contortion/swimming act followed by her
meeting of Romeo. In the Premiere, Romeo has found his own way to
Miranda, emphasizing the connection between them. In Seattle, the
Peacock Goddess showed Romeo the way. The magic of the meeting of
Miranda and Romeo was, for me, significantly reduced.
So with the high bar/uneven bar routine not getting the emphasis and
attention it deserved because of the pacing of the acts just before
it, the first act ended.
With the beginning of the Second Act you do want a high energy piece
to bring the audience back and that was the teeterboard act, the male
answer to the female routine that ended the First Act. The acrobatics
were as well done as I remembered in the Premiere. As a change of pace
they brought in the Captain. Originally this was a reunion of Captain
and crew and the crew was having fun at the expense of their Captain.
It was clear, tight and concise. In Seattle, someone decided that the
Captain should spout on about being in love. The crew wasn’t listening
to him so it didn’t make much sense, except that somebody obviously
thought it would be a good idea to de-emphasize the guy’s reunion
concept add some fluff to the scene.
The Balance Goddess’ piece stood out in Premiere because in a company
that seems to emphasize speed and energy, we had a slow, deliberate,
almost meditative piece. And, for me it worked. The Balance Goddess
was intensely focused on her work and the audience was drawn into that
quiet intensity. The time involved didn’t matter, it was evenly paced
throughout. The breath sounds were an early addition and had
connection with the assembly of the ‘object.’ More importantly, this
was essentially a private moment, Prospera brought Miranda to this
place to show her this lesson. The intensity of the act created a
tension, a tension that was released at the conclusion of the act when
the first stick was removed and the piece collapses, thus the lesson
is demonstrated in full. In the Premiere the Balance Goddess reaches
out for the first stick but pauses, (I can’t remember if Miranda did
something to cause her to pause), the Goddess looks to Prosepra who
motions that she should continue and the Goddess does.
In Seattle, the Balance Goddess flew through the construction of the
object. No breath sounds, she had to focus on getting all the pieces
just right. She then spent a long time on the movement of the
assembled object with it’s final placement on the stand. (Again, the
original was much more evenly paced.) Breath sounds here felt more
choreographed than a natural part of the task. And when the Balance
Goddess reaches out for the first stick, she looks out to the audience
(breaking the private nature of the event) and laughs, like “you all
know what I’m about to do, right?” The audience laughs with her. The
tension that should be broken by the falling apart of the object is
instead broken by the laughter. There was the look to Prospera and the
permission given to destroy the object but, for me, when she then
reaches out and the object falls apart its anti-climactic. Cheap trick
#3. Like the flashlight trick and the plastic octopus, sharing the
laughter with the audience first is a simple, effective trick
(audience laughter is good, it means they’re enjoying the show) that
takes away from the original intent of the piece.
The team did add one bit that I thought enhanced the show. In the
Premiere I wondered how Romeo knew that that flying pole was going to
come down to assist him. I was fine assuming that Prospera was working
magic behind the scenes but to my mind it would have helped to
solidify the whole to have some indication of that. In Seattle they
put the Moon Goddess on a platform and the two acknowledged each
other’s presence. That worked. It doesn’t excuse the three cheap
tricks that came before it but it does recognize that sometimes the
ideas of others can be beneficial.
They changed the “Ai, ai, ai” bit, where Deeda is about to give birth.
In the Premiere it was sort of a surprised, anxious sound and action
as one would expect at such a moment. In Seattle the tone of voice and
the body was sort of “Hey, hot stuff, guess what’s going to happen
now?” I can’t figure out the reasoning behind changing that.
In the Premiere, at the start of the triple tight wire act we see the
Black Goddess curled around something, she opens her arms to reveal
Miranda. It was a quiet moment leading into the relatively low energy
nature of the tight wire act. In Seattle, I was surprised as the Black
Goddess reacted to people passing by her with snarls and bared claws,
a much more intense action than I’d seen before. They were having
trouble getting the stands set for the act and so the clowns were
vamping. Maybe that was a way to bring the vamping to a close or maybe
someone thought it would be a beneficial change to make to the
beginning of that act. Yes, it emphasized the evil nature of the Black
Goddess but, for me, the emphasis here is supposed to be Miranda and
the two couples performing the tight wire act. The energy of that
action emphasized the Black Goddess at the expense of the attention
that should have been given to Miranda before the act began.
Viktor Kee was marvelous as usual.
In the Premiere there was a satisfaction to Cali’s downfall and
banishment that just wasn’t there in Seattle, probably because I
wasn’t as emotionally invested in the trials of Miranda and Romeo as I
had been in the Premiere, thanks to Diane Paulus’ direction.
At the end of Amaluna in the Premiere the fans are brought out again
and Prospera sends a blue cloth floating and dancing. The lights dim
to a column, we see just the dancing cloth, the doorway to Amaluna
closes, the show is over. Then the lights come up full and the
performers come out to take their bows. I love shows with artistic
circles like that, the red cloth alone in the light to begin the
circle, the blue cloth alone in the light to close it. In Seattle,
Prospera got a bit tangled up in the cloth and it started to fly out
of the wind stream quickly so the lights never really dimmed. Though,
considering the high energy pacing of the show I wonder if they would
have allowed the time necessary for the lights to fade and for things
to calm for just a moment. With the magic of the start shattered
though, there would not have been a strong sense of a closing of the
circle.
I like to see the Premieres of new shows, like to get a feel for both
the energy of a new show and for the energy of the original
artistic/creative intent. That energy of original intent fades to
varying degrees over time as the show matures, as cast members change,
as perhaps whole acts have to be replaced. I used to think that if I
saw a show again within three years after its Premiere I’d still have
a strong sense of that original artistic/creative energy. With
Amaluna, it didn’t even make it a full year. Again, it seems to me
that Cirque du Soleil does not have, in-house, the creative talent
necessary to ensure that a new creation will realize its full artistic
potential throughout its run. (Even though the “Senior Artistic
Director” position has, in the new Amaluna program been renamed,
“Senior Director, Show Quality.”)
The team does seem to know the entertainment side. What I call the
‘cheap tricks’ and the other changes worked, the audience in Seattle
loved the show. Had I not seen the Premiere, I might have loved it as
well, until I began thinking about what I had seen and got the feeling
that there was something missing. (I’d had a very strong feeling of
‘failure to realize the show’s artistic potential’ with Wintuk and a
similar feeling with Banana Shpeel.) I’m sure that Cirque du Soleil
will see very good ticket sales for the show throughout its run but
where I was ready to purchase tickets to once again see what I’ll call
“Amaluna – The Original Version,” I’m not sure I’ll be spending my
money on “Amaluna – The Entertainment Version” tickets again. I can
use that money to travel to Montreal to see new Cirque du Soleil show
premieres, or attend the annual Montreal Completement Cirque in July
and see companies from all over the world or travel to other cities or
countries and see what they have locally, like Seattle has with Teatro
Zinzanni.
