PDF
Written by: Ian Markowitz
Cirque du Soleil’s KÀ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is certainly a spectacle worth a stop when in Las Vegas, but the true story with the show is the sheer investment in the technology and the performance space by Cirque du Soleil for the show. I envision when Cirque du Soleil was designing the show they sat around a table and tried to list as many unbelievable aspects that they could incorporate into a show, and then jokingly said to do it, but someone took them seriously and built it, and the result is KÀ.
Cirque du Soleil pulled out all the stops for this show and even redefined the traditional stage by extending the “stage” all the way out into the audience for full interaction between the actors and the audience (which creeped out the young kid sitting next to me). The show starts as the audience walks into the theater with the central “pit” filled with fog and fire balls intermittently launched into the air. However, this even the fog isn’t what you might expect at a theatrical performance, its not the homegrown fog that fills fog machines on Halloween, Cirque decided that they liked the look of liquid nitrogen mixed with hot water better, so they have a 13,000 gallon storage tank for their liquid nitrogen.
On top of that, they wanted to create an experience for the audience that no home theater is capable of recreating, so they created a theater with over 500,000 total watts powering over 4,500 drivers (thats a lot fyi). On top of that, each seat in the theater has two speakers in the back of the headrest so that every audience member gets fully immersed in the sound of the show.
Battle Scene from KA (Photo provided by Cirque du Soleil)
Now, I mentioned before that Cirque’s stage was far from ordinary, and it truly is. The stage is capable of being hoisted or lowered into the air, rotated vertically up to 110 degrees and rotated horizontally 360 degrees. In one of the scenes, the actors climb up the stage positioned vertically (perpendicular to the ground) as in the picture above, and a computer recognizes their motion and creates ripple effects projected onto the stage. On top of that, built into each actors costume is a wireless remote for the actor to control their motion as they move around the stage.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing KÀ and although it wasn’t my favorite Cirque show, the technology which was incorporated into the show is truly astounding and would take me a couple thousand words to fully describe every technical aspect of the show.
For die hard Cirque fans, you may end up leaving disappointed as this show focuses more on the story and the beauty of the technology included in the show, and less on the mind numbing feats and contortional skill of the acrobats. Thats not to say that this Cirque show is without, because it certainly is not. Fans of Kooza (which came to Boston last year) will remember the Wheel of Death, which is reincorporated into KÀ in a new way as well. Additionally, there is no shortage of high falls into the pit of the stage which still seems awesome, however I think the sheer size of the theater in which KÀ performs is its greatest downfall.
The KÀ Theater seats just under 2,000 people in a standard theater arrangement instead of the circular arrangement of Cirque’s big-top performances. I think the separation from the audience removes some of the magic of KÀ, that isn’t to say they didn’t try to reconnect the audience with the action. By bringing flying birds and actors into the audience they try to remove the traditional boundaries of the stage, but too much happens on the deep stage and as a result the connection between the audience is not as powerful as it typically is, especially in its big-top performances.
Personal Rant: My last comment is completely unrelated to the show itself and out of Cirque du Soleil’s control, but instead is related to the audience at the show I was at. I have never been to a theatrical performance where the audience was as disrespectful of the actors on stage as they were at this performance. I witnessed more people get up to leave in the middle of the performance than any other show I have seen. Now this isn’t people in the back row quietly getting up to go to the bathroom, this was people in the first three rows, front and center, with the actors no more than 20 feet in front of them getting up and leaving right in the middle of the performance. While there is no intermission at KÀ, I was shocked at how many people ignored pure theatrical respect and went to the bathroom. Additionally, there were only about 30 people or so in a mostly full theater which seats just under 2,000 mind you who gave the actors a standing ovation. Shocking.
Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu
Comments on this entry are closed.