My doctor recently suggested that I should cut down on cheese. This may have stopped me having vivid dreams, but there is more than enough of a dreamlike quality to this Cirque du Soleil spectacular to keep me going for the rest of 2022.
Actually ‘spectacular’ is not quite right this time. After the pandemic threatened the future of the globe-straddling modern circus company, it is defiantly back, but with a modest affair here. Corteo, first staged in 2005 though never in the UK, is at the 02 rather than the usual Royal Albert Hall. Some levels are closed however, lending this a welcome intimacy missing from their Kensington visits.
What Corteo, meaning ‘procession’, loses in pyrotechnics it gains in moments of sheer magic. The loose narrative centres on an elderly clown, played by Mauro Mozzani, looking back on his life from his deathbed. At one point he declares that he is already dead, yet that does not prevent him from playing football, riding a bicycle and generally making the afterlife look rather fun.
There are a few lows – a violin medley that makes Classic FM seem edgy is superfluous – alongside plenty of memorable set-pieces. The undoubted highlight is when ‘the clowness’ , Anita Szented from Hungary, floats above the stalls suspended by giant helium balloons, relying on audience members to propel her along with helpful shoves.
Elsewhere beds become trampolines, ladders become stilts and a comedic golf skit is unlike anything you will see at the British Open this week. There is some extremely tasteful pole dancing (this is definitely a family show, with child-friendly weekend matinees as well as evening performances) and breathtaking gravity-defying acrobatics that will make your stomach do somersaults.
The jugglers here are particularly impressive. There is a cafe I frequent that gives free coffee to customers who can keep three balls in the air for 30 seconds. I’ve never managed it, much to the baristas’ amusement, but the trio onstage would have latte for life if they popped along. Which is apt because Corteo does sound like a fancy brand of coffee.
If the circus skills are not particularly original, the way they are framed feels different from past London Cirque shows. There are no sprites, nymphs and gymnasts dressed as assorted forest creatures. This is Cirque du Soleil at its least pretentious, which has to be a good thing.
There is a back-to-basics sensibility, complete with Pierrots and ringmaster. Although this iteration of their brand owes less to Billy Smart, more to Fellini. Undeniably cheesy at times, but with this revival Cirque has come full circle and is all the better for it.
