LondonTheatre1

London Theatre: Tickets Reviews | News | West End | Off-West End | UK Touring Productions

View All Shows Booking Now
  • Home
  • Top Selling Shows
    • Musicals
    • Plays
      • A Christmas Carol
      • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
      • The Mousetrap
      • The Woman in Black
      • Witness for the Prosecution
    • & Juliet
    • Back To The Future
    • Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
    • Come From Away
    • Dirty Dancing
    • Frozen The Musical
    • Heathers
    • Jersey Boys
    • Les Misérables
    • Mamma Mia
    • Matilda the Musical
    • My Fair Lady
    • Moulin Rouge
    • Only Fools and Horses
    • Pretty Woman the Musical
    • The Book of Mormon
    • The Drifters Girl
    • The Lion King
    • The Phantom of the Opera
    • Tina the Musical
    • Wicked
    • London Theatres
      • Seating Plans
      • Adelphi Theatre
      • Ambassadors Theatre
      • Apollo Theatre
      • Duke of York’s Theatre
      • Fortune Theatre
      • Gillian Lynne Theatre
      • Harold Pinter Theatre
      • Lyceum Theatre
      • New Wimbledon Theatre
      • New Wimbledon Theatre Studio
      • Piccadilly Theatre
      • Richmond Theatre
      • Savoy Theatre
      • Trafalgar Theatre
  • News
    • Interviews
  • Reviews
  • UK Shows
    • Alexandra Theatre
    • Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
    • Brighton Theatre Royal
    • Bristol Hippodrome
      • Bristol Theatre Seating Plan
    • Edinburgh Playhouse
    • Glasgow Theatre Royal
    • Grand Opera House York
    • King’s Theatre Glasgow
    • Kit Kat Club London
    • Leas Cliff Hall
    • Liverpool Empire
    • Manchester Opera House
    • Manchester Palace Theatre
    • Milton Keynes Theatre
    • New Theatre Oxford
    • New Victoria Theatre Woking
    • New Wimbledon Theatre
    • New Wimbledon Theatre Studio
    • Princess Theatre Torquay
    • Regent Theatre Stoke
    • Rhoda McGaw Theatre
    • Richmond Theatre
    • Stockton Globe
    • Sunderland Empire
    • Swansea Arena
    • Victoria Hall Hanley Stoke
  • Dancewear
  • Newsletter
Home » Reviews » Cirque du Soleil: LUZIA ‘A Waking Dream of Mexico’ – Royal Albert Hall

Cirque du Soleil: LUZIA ‘A Waking Dream of Mexico’ – Royal Albert Hall

January 14, 2022 Last updated: January 14, 2022 4:19 pm By Ben Ross

Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia is a joyful whirl through a psychedelic Mexico, which reminds us why live theatre is so special.

Cirque Du Soleil 2019
Cirque Du Soleil 2019

Anyone who goes to the theatre will wonder at some point why they bother. No, not the audience – the performers. Why rehearse for weeks a play, opera, ballet, circus production, so that you can perform the same thing night after night? We have film these days, to capture the show and allow anyone and everyone to watch it whenever and wherever they want. And yet still we flock to theatres to watch people inhabiting characters, transporting us to other places, with the subtlest of hints of location, time of day, weather.

Luzia is the perfect answer to this question.

None of us were in Mexico last night, but all of us felt some of the raw emotions experienced by the creatives and cast when they journeyed to Central America to try to bottle their waking dream to bring it back to us. From the hummingbirds fluttering and flying through hoops, to the desert sun, captured in the form of spinning Cyr wheels, from Pok-Ta-Pok, with its stunning keepy-uppy ball skills, to the daredevil Luchadores wrestlers, our senses feast on a non-step adrenaline rush.

After months of watching Netflix, meeting friends on Zoom, and trying to keep the same daily walk fresh, I’m hungry for real-life performance, and that feeling that a whole world is being evoked just for me, at least in this moment (and sure, I guess for a few others also present in the stunning beauty of the Royal Albert Hall). But with circus, it is, of course, more than that. When someone is – live – leaping from one Russian swing to another, and doing a somersault in between, the risk is very real, and the tension palpable. And yes, the occasional juggling club gets dropped, someone trips on their landing and has to be caught by their colleagues – because this is actually happening in front of us, right now.

Simon Carpentier’s score can’t be ignored, offering a heartbeat that stays with me long after the curtain call, nor Eugenio Caballero’s set design, which includes a special effect with falling water that joyfully defies belief and threatens to overshadow the human performances.

It’s hard to pick out favourite acts. Cylios Pytlak’s speed juggling defies any attempt to squeeze what I see into my comprehension. Stephen Brine’s aerial straps dancing is bold and evocative, and with its wet hair flicking, frankly erotically-charged. Aleksei Goloborodko has a contortion routine that makes me nauseous in a can’t-look-away kind of way. But picking out individual performances would be to mislead, not least because it ignores those tricks that can only be performed by multiple bodies catapulting through the air at once. This is an ensemble piece – everyone right here in the arena together.

If ever you doubt the importance of live, unmediated showbusiness, head to Luzia: a Waking Dream of Mexico, and let Cirque du Soleil transport you to worlds that – sorry – your television simply cannot.

5 Star Rating

Review by Ben Ross

The Cirque du Soleil sun is rising!

The intermission is over: Cirque du Soleil will reopen their dazzling luminous spectacle, LUZIA, at the Royal Albert Hall in January 2022.

LUZIA takes you to an imaginary Mexico, like in a waking dream, where light (“luz” in Spanish) quenches the spirit and rain (“lluvia”) soothes the soul.

With a surrealistic series of grand visual surprises and breathtaking acrobatic performances, LUZIA cleverly brings to the stage multiple places, faces and sounds of Mexico taken from both tradition and modernity.

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL PRESENTS
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL – LUZIA
A WAKING DREAM OF MEXICO
Wednesday 12 January – Sunday 27 February 2022
https://www.royalalberthall.com/

Search for Tickets

Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare’s Globe

Titus Andronicus is not usually a comedy, it is usually a bloody, villainous and vengeful tale, but tonight it is a comedy and a rather amusing one at … [Read More...]

I Found My Horn – at the White Bear Theatre

This show is not without clichés - there are three of note in this production. Firstly, the French horn of the show’s title is personified, speaking … [Read More...]

How Not To Drown at Theatre Royal Stratford East

There’s very little in the way of set in this show: aside from chairs, a few crash barriers and at one point, a red carpet, the actors’ movements … [Read More...]

Why Can’t I Just enjoy Things – Soho Theatre

South African born, but raised on the Isle of Man, Pierre Novellie is a true raconteur rather than just another 'stand-up' comedian. He says about his … [Read More...]

Welcome Home by Willy Huson at Soho Theatre

This show, Willy Hudson began by saying, is about himself. It is written by himself, is directed by himself and executive produced by himself. Almost … [Read More...]

London Theatre 1 and London Theatre One are Registered Trademarks Copyright 2023 www.LondonTheatre1.com
By using our website you’re confirming that you’re happy to accept our use of cookies.
Privacy Policy & Cookies - Advertising - About Us - Newsletter - Contact Us

As an Amazon Associate our website receives a commission from qualifying purchases from Amazon.