Spectacle overrides humanity in Cirque’s Toruk
Toruk — The First Flight
(out of 4) Written and directed by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, under the guidance of Guy Laliberté and Jean-François Bouchard (Cirque du soleil) and Jon Landau, James Cameron, Kathy Franklin and Richie Baneham (Lightstorm Entertainment). Until Sunday at the Air Canada Centre, 40 Bay St. ticketmaster.ca. After years of being the biggest show in theatre, Cirque du soleil has finally gone Hollywood. Not only that, it has teamed up with one of the biggest blockbusters in film history for its latest show.
For better and for worse, there are more similarities between Cirque’s Toruk — The First Flight and James Cameron’s Avatar than just the shared world of Pandora, a far-off moon inhabited by athletic blue humanoids called Na’vi.
Despite the 2009 film’s hype and record-breaking box-office haul (its success in North America recently surpassed by Star Wars: The Force Awakens), it has had little lasting cultural impact or relevance.
Its plot is laughably formulaic, yet the details have eroded over the past six years: A white man infiltrates a noble, native group to exploit their resources for his employers but falls in love with both a female and the people’s values, so he switches loyalties and saves their world.
Avatar is by far more famous for its 3D visuals and uncomfortable racial politics than any compelling storyline, despite the “Pandorapedia” built to document the intricacies of Cameron’s fictional moon. With Toruk — The First Flight, Cirque pre- sents its first show with a coherent narrative and a narrator that tells the story in English; the characters speak the Na’vi language created for the film.
But the show ultimately follows the path of its predecessors, focusing on technical tricks over a compelling story or human charm.
The legend that the narrator tells takes place generations before Avatar: of the first Na’vi to ride the powerful dragonlike creature the Toruk (pronounced tor-OOK).
After a premonition predicts the destruction of the sacred Tree of Souls, the life source of the Na’vi, the young orphan Entu (Daniel Crispin) and his friend Ralu (Jeremiah Hughes) search for five objects that will entice the Toruk to save it.
Along the way, they meet new tribes and creatures, which make for the signature Cirque spectacle with larger-than-life puppets designed by Patrick Martel and projections that turn the Air Canada Centre floor from a lush bioluminescent forest to a raging river to a lava-covered disaster zone.
The visual elements are the stars of Toruk, but they slow down any momentum the story is able to build.
The human acts feel like an afterthought, swallowed by the giant venue and seemingly shortened to make time for the plot points and puppets. Even when an act feels like it’s just getting going, like the Tipani Clan’s routine on spinning motorized poles, it ends.
These acrobatic images are brief or otherwise compete with a whole arena of tumbling performers or aerial rope artists.
At times, Toruk is even dull, which is not a word I ever thought I’d use to describe a Cirque show.
The greatest human skill in Toruk is the unbelievable singing of Priscilia Le Foll as the Shaman.
Her voice seems to explode through the arena like nothing else in the production, no matter how advanced the projections or technical the puppetry.
The human element of such fantastical feats is what makes contemporary circus so exciting and it’s this that’s missing from Toruk — The First Flight.
At times, Toruk is even dull, which is not a word reviewer Carly Maga ever thought she would use to describe a Cirque show