Voyage de la Vie

Event: Voyage de la Vie (Journey of Life)
Venue: Festive Grand, Resorts World Sentosa
Run: 1 Jul – 28 Nov 2010

Probably considered a rather late review since the show has been running for some time, but nevertheless still new to me since I only just caught it on Friday.

A theatrical circus spectacular, as what it’s called, the show tells the story of a guy (they call him The Boy) who is led into a magical world of action, magic, love and imagination, guided by the mysterious Lantern Keeper (Victor Kee). There is no dialogue at all, only 3 points where The Boy (Jonathan Leong) sings (start, middle and end). The rest of the show was magic and acrobatics.

Highlights

The contortionist (Alexey Goloborodko):

This boy appeared in the 1st scene as the Game Master, in a container not much bigger than a fruit carton (it looked like one of those portable photo studio that I saw at Popular). Oh my! He was like one without bones, twisting and turning his body and limbs here and there like they were not connected! Like flipping over backwards and putting his head between his legs (which somehow made him look like a spider). You had to see it to believe it. It made me feel a bit squirmish, but he was really good.

Magician & Pianist (Jarret Parker & Raja Rahman):

The highlight of this scene “The Magician and The Maestro” has got to be the ‘body-sawn-in-half’ segment where Jarret saws Raja in two, who still manages to play the piano, lying on his back.

Hand balancing:

A “rock” part of the show, we saw Melanie Chy (The Diva) do her hand balancing act on a motorcycle. You can just imagine all that muscle in use.

Trapeze (by Aurelia Cats):

This was the part with one of the most beautiful backdrop and fluid movements. It’s when The Boy sings “Perfect Love” (I think that’s the name) and the backdrop has stars and a moon. Also lots of muscle works as she hangs from the trapeze, especially when she hangs upside down, with only her feet holding her to the trapeze.

Aerial rope act (by Liina Aunola):

She came rolling down on a rope. Famous for her rope and cloud swing act, the rope works were pretty head spinning as I felt giddy for her.

Crossbow (Martti Peltonen):

Although the act climaxed at the segment where he was in the middle of a ring of 17 crossbows, each properly timed and calculated to set off the next till it shot the last arrow through the apple on the head of Martti, I liked the 1st part where he shoots his arrow that bounces back, through a veil and into a mask he’s holding. It was so quick and accurate.

Juggler:

Last but not least, we have Viktor Kee, the excellent juggler that is the Lantern Keeper and the master of the voyage. He performed his juggling in a most light-hearted way, using his whole body to juggle, like his chest, feet, etc, and even lying down, on his back and even belly. There was a point that he juggled up to 7 (or 8?) balls. No mistakes at all.

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It was an entertaining experience, with pyrotechnics, somersaults and all that graceful acrobatics.