Director: David Shiner.
Starring: Cirque du Soleil company.
Synopsis: KOOZA is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil: It combines two circus traditions – acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor.
As we’ve found in the past, Cirque Du Soleil is extremely hit and miss, and last year their Royal Albert Hall effort Quidam failed on so many levels to impress, but the revival of their 2007 hit Kooza, and it’s return to Britain’s biggest big-top, appears to have rectified any previous shortcomings on the wow factor.
From start to jaw-dropping finish, Kooza impresses on every level. From the weird twisty bodies of the three Mongolian contortionists at the start of the show, who quite literally twist their figures in ways you wouldn’t think were possible, to the astonishing, three-man, double-layered high wire act at the end of act one, to the dizzying heights of the nutter that builds a mountain of chairs 30 feet in the air (whilst climbing them at the same) at the end, this show injects excitement, wonder, awe and heart-stopping, Las Vegas style into a screaming Royal Albert Hall like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
You have trapeze artists, hoop jugglers, confetti-spewing cannons, a Keith Moon-esque drummer solo, random comedy robots, an amazing unicycle double-act and a dozen plus acrobats flinging each other high up into the dome of the Albert Hall and landing with pin perfect precision – all within a running time of less than two hours.
Add on to that the show-stopping, second half starting ‘Wheel Of Death’ featuring two blokes running, skipping, jumping and somersaulting their way around two hamster-type wheels as they rotate, and horny and indeed really bloody funny clowns, and you’ve got yourself an absolutely belting show.
Recommended to anyone looking for something a little bit different from a night out in London Town. The seats are a little pricey, especially as you’ll spend most of your time perched on the end of one of them, but boy is this worth every penny. Bravo Cirque, bravo.
Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza plays London’s Royal Albert Hall until 19th February 2015. Book via this link here.
