Reviews 2010
Reviews 2010
✭✭✩✩✩
written and directed by David Shiner
Cirque du Soleil, Canon Theatre, Toronto
September 19-October 10, 2010
“Get rid of the clowns! Get rid of the Clowns,” vaudeville impresario Marty Schmelky shouts repeatedly throughout Banana Shpeel. If only somebody would. For this, Cirque du Soleil’s latest show, writer and director David Shiner has reversed the format that has served the company so well. He makes the clown acts the show’s focus and turns the measly five acrobatic acts into short interludes in two hours of “comedy.” If the clown acts have always been your favourite part of Cirque du Soleil, this show is for you. If not, you have been warned.
Banana Shpeel is part of Cirque’s attempt to create shows for regular proscenium theatres instead of for the specialized requirements of a big top. It will have to work much harder. If a show makes clowns the most important element, at least what they do should be funny. In isolation the Marty Schmelky as played by Danny Rutigliano, who looks like Danny DeVito and has the voice and attitude of Lewis Black, could be hilarious. So could his ditzy secretary Margaret (Shereen Hickman) and his two bumbling assistants Daniel (Daniel Passer) and Wayne (Wayne Wilson), but Shiner has given none of them interesting material unless you think “Shut up” is a witty comeback line. The three clowns who join them really lower the tone. One is horrid caricature of a senior with palsy and Alzheimer’s and we’re supposed to laugh when his walker is kicked away and he falls down. The second is a horrid caricature of a sleazy Latino who specialty act makes fun of deaf people. The third is a would-be flasher, except for his red briefs, who is funny as in creepy, not “ha-ha”.
New to Cirque is tap dancing. It’s too bad the choreography is more manic than elegant and that the sound of the onstage band often drowns out the tapping. Despite Shiner’s plan, the most memorable parts of the show are still the acrobatic acts. Vanessa Alvarez, a foot juggler, is fantastic and so is Tuan Le, a hat juggler who can make straw hats return like boomerangs. The final three acts, though amazing in themselves, suffer from being too similar--hand-to-hand followed by hand balancing followed by contortion and balancing. Cirque du Soleil is famous for its costumes, but Dominique Lemieux’s are downright ugly. The period shifts unaccountably from the 1920s in Act 1 to the 1960s in Act 2--a bit odd since vaudeville was dead by the ‘60s. To remain creative a company needs to experiment. This experiment just doesn’t work out. It would be better for Cirque du Soleil to withdraw Banana Shpeel than flog it on tour and endanger its reputation.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2010-09-20.
Photo: Cast of Banana Shpeel. ©Olivier Samson Arcand.
2010-09-20
Banana Shpeel