4th February 2009: Le Grand Cirque at The Civic

Kate organised a trip to see Le Grand Cirque, and the usual bunch of around 8 CHPers went along.

The show was similar to Cirque du Soleil (I imagine, having never seen Cirque du Soleil myself). We were very impressed and gasped several times during the evening watching people do things that should be impossible.

Particularly impressive? The double-jointed girl who frequently looked like two halves of a person stacked the wrong way up; the man balancing on a ladder with a couple of ladies standing on his shoulders; an unfeasible number of people on a bicycle; the people who sprinted up and down poles, sometimes using only their hands; the list goes on.

The cast was mostly Oriental and wore polished inscrutable smiles that didn't let you know which the really difficult moves were. The exception was a white girl who swung on a high rope trapeze, periodically yodelling a high-pitched screech. We weren't sure if this was to motivate her or to excite us; I confess I preferred the polished smiles, on the whole.

This is the first time in a long time that any show has ended leaving me wishing it could have gone on for another hour.