One man is a middle-aged, depressed soul with blue hair who needs help escaping the doldrums to find his inner strength and spark. WAZ lives in a society of robotic city dwellers who have become slaves to their smartphones. Out of sync with their true selves, The Greys are a 21st-century version of the living dead numbly awaiting an opportunity to be liberated from their state of cultural limbo and reborn as free spirits.
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| The Greys are addicted to their smartphones in Volta (Photo by: Michael Kass Costumes Zaldy) |
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| Volta's "Free Spirits" are talented acrobats (Photo by: Michael Kass Costumes Zaldy) |
The other man is in his early twenties: a naive, impulsive writer who has set out from New York on an absurd quest to find the Ukrainian woman standing next to his grandfather in an old photograph so he can thank her for saving his ancestor from the Nazis. Like many American tourists who are ill-prepared to travel on foreign soil, he's a bit of a schlub, painfully out of his comfort zone and unable to speak anything other than English, who must depend on two bizarre Ukrainian men to meet his goal.
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| Jeremy Kahn portrays Jonathan Safran Foer in a scene from Everything Is Illuminated (Photo by: David Allen) |
One narrative takes place in a granite quarry whose parameters are constantly changing with the storyline; a place where beams of light reach into the audience as a rotating stage seems to pulse and breathe. The other is set in a Ukrainian countryside, where the remnants of past atrocities have been buried under layers of vegetation, poverty, and despair.
Each man is a singular soul struggling to find answers. Each is drawn toward the light, like a moth. Toward a light which may illuminate dark and deeply-held secrets or, perhaps, a light that can rekindle his creativity and uniqueness.
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Working with set designer Bruce Rodgers, costume Zaldy Goco, and choreographer Julie Perron, writer-director Bastien Alexandre has built a narrative that incorporates much more ballet into Volta than seen in most Cirque du Soleil shows.I sometimes like to joke that the earliest adopters of new technology have traditionally been the porn industry and Cirque du Soleil. With each new show that comes to town, one can see evidence of the company's efforts to pioneer new and creative uses of technology while strengthening the dramatic flow and fluidity of movement.
Volta’s stage contains two revolving platforms (a turntable with a concentric outer ring (embedded with footlights) that can move artists and props onto the main stage while enhancing the audience's sense of kinetic energy. The show’s final specialty number (a BMX act built around bicycle athletes doing extreme tricks) features six massive ramps made of a thick, heavy-duty polycarbonate used to make bulletproof glass.
Because a BMX rider landing on one of these ramps at a speed of approximately 18.6 miles per hour generates a gravitational force of 12 Gs (nearly twelve times his weight), the ramps must be sturdy enough to be wheeled on and offstage yet be fully transparent in order to accommodate viewing from any angle in the audience. To facilitate storage between shows (as well as en route from one city to another), the ramps are designed to be of increasing size so that they can fit inside one another like a set of Russian matryoshka dolls.
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| Danila Bim appears as if in a mirage in a scene from Volta (Photo by: Benoit Z. Leroux Costumes Zaldy) |
The 2.5-ton vertical-lift bridge supported by two of Le Grand Chapiteau's four masts serves multiple purposes. It can be used as an auxiliary stage which draws the audience’s attention upward while scenic elements are being moved on and off the main stage. It can also provide a jumping-off point for acrobats using trampolines. What some members of the audience may not realize is that the back of the bridge holds cables and props required for Volta's Act I finale (an impressive gymnastics act using Swiss rings and bungee cords).
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| Gymnasts performing on Swiss rings in Volta (Photo by: Matt Beard Costumes Zaldy) |
Cirque du Soleil is especially adept at finding new ways to integrate LED lighting into its productions. Volta's stage is ringed with LED lights and can be lined with a forest of movable LED-lit lampposts that focus the audience’s attention on the performance. LED strips are also embedded into the massive TrampoWall its acrobats use as the stage rotates beneath them.
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| Acrobats working with the TrampoWall in Volta (Photo by: Matt Beard Costumes Zaldy) |
In addition to large LED screens hanging above the audience and to the side of the stage, LED lighting allows vertical strips placed along the tent’s perimeter to pulse with light while LED spotlights high above the stage project ghostly streams of light onto the playing area. Larger spotlights close to the ground send beams of light directly out into the audience. The production’s 100% interactive video control system can be triggered by the kick of a drum or the sound of a voice.
The newest display of Cirque’s genius can be see in its 6.5-ton Cube, a magic box meant to symbolize WAZ’s refuge in which he keeps mementos of his (happier) childhood. Powered by a 200-amp electrical source similar to those one used in an average home, the Cube’s rotating motor can make it pivot as well as move upstage and downstage. Two of its movable panels are equipped with 4-mm LED tiles that deliver film quality video content. The wallpaper on the back wall of the Cube is perforated with tiny holes that help to ventilate and cool down the huge LED panels.
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| Pawel Valczewski performs with an Acro Lamp in Volta (Photo by: Matt Beard Costumes Zaldy) |
One cannot attend a Cirque du Soleil performance without being thoroughly absorbed in its audiovisual fantasy world. This production benefits immensely from the contributions of lighting designer Martin Labrecque, video content designer Thibaut Duverneix, and composer-music director Anthony Gonzalez. While Volta's plot line is often difficult to follow, the real attraction are the gymnastic acts upon which the show has been built.
Today, Cirque du Soleil’s 4,000 employees (including 1,400 artists) represent more than 50 nationalities and speak 25 different languages. Volta's TrampoWall takes childhood fantasies about conquering the monkey bars and nearly elevates them past the confines of CGI scripting. British twins Andrew and Kevin Atherton perform a breathtaking display of how to fly using duo straps while Brazil's Danila Bim stuns the crowd with her hair suspension act. Canadians Philippe Bélanger and Marie-Lee Guilbert perform an astonishing balancing act on a unicycle.
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| Philippe Bélanger performs on a unicycle in a scene from Volta (Photo by: Matt Beard Costumes Zaldy) |
Joey Arrigo (who competed in the Canadian edition of So You Think You Can Dance) and Uruguay's Rosina Gil bring a welcome touch of ballet to the performance. The USA's Kevin Beverly and Bradley Henderson, Cambodia's Dina Sok, and the United Kingdom's Connor Stringer and Ahmahd Thomas team up to amaze and delight the audience as they catapult themselves through a variety of geometric shapes placed at different heights and angles.
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| A moment from the "Shape Diving" act in Volta (Photo by: Matt Beard Costumes Zaldy) |
Although a troupe of gymnasts on Swiss rings and the BMX riders who top off the evening are the obvious highlights of Volta, I was touched by the classic clowning of Russia's Andrey Kislitsin who (in addition to appearing as Mr. Wow) portrays a man challenged by two cantankerous washing machines with minds of their own.
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| Andrey Kislitsin does battle with two obstreperous clothes washers in a scene from Volta (Photo by: Matt Beard Costumes Zaldy) |
With each new show, Cirque du Soleil's artists demonstrate their ability to shock and awe large numbers of people with their talent. Just when you think you've seen it all, an act can take your breath away. Performances of Volta continue under Cirque du Soleil's Grand Chapiteau near AT&T Park through February 3 (click here for tickets). Here's the trailer:
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The Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley is currently presenting the West Coast premiere of Simon Block's stage adaptation of Everything Is Illuminated, a disturbing comedy that premiered in London in 2006. Based on the 2002 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer (which was brought to the screen in a 2005 film starring Elijah Wood), the play begins on a comedic note about men from vastly different cultures who have difficulty communicating with one another. One is modeled on the author's experience of trying to find a story to write which will bring some characters to life. The other is a Ukrainian man of approximately the same age who desperately needs the American's dollars but, due to his poor English and eccentric grandfather, is a far from ideal guide. |
| Adam Burch, Jeremy Kahn, and Julien López-Morillas in a scene from Everything Is Illuminated (Photo by: David Allen) |
With the American writer terrified of dogs and the Ukrainian grandfather insisting that his mutt (named Sammy Davis Jr., Jr.) sit beside the American in the back of the car while the two Ukrainians sit up front, this is not, by any means, a typical road trip. Kate Boyd's puzzle-like unit set, combined with Callie Floor's costumes and Kurt Landisman's lighting, set the stage for some powerful storytelling that has been directed by Tom Ross with great skill. The production benefits immensely from the superb sound design by Matt Stines.
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| Julien López-Morillas as the Grandfather in a scene from Everything Is Illuminated (Photo by: David Allen) |
To understand the way Foer's writing talent (combined with his youthful cluelessness as a tourist) helped to hatch the plot of Everything Is Illuminated, I strongly recommend watching the interview he did with Charlie Rose after his novel's initial success.
One of the key plot points in the story is the grouchy grandfather's refusal to drive to a small village which the American can't find on a map and the grandfather insists does not exist. In her program note, dramaturg Ula Madej-Krupitski points out that this mysterious destination is in no way the Ukrainian equivalent of Brigadoon:
“Trachimbrod was an almost exclusively Jewish-inhabited locale. The shtetl was located about 20 miles north of Lutsk in present-day Ukraine. The first residents in this tiny village were placed by the Russian authorities in the year 1835 (the settlement was intended to become an agricultural colony). Sholem Aleichem spent some time in Trachimbrod in 1877, where he worked as a private teacher. World War I and the subsequent breakup of the Austrian and Russian empires saw Trachimbrod fall under the control of Austria and, eventually, the Second Polish Republic.”
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| Lura Dolas (Old Woman) and Adam Burch (Alex) in a scene from Everything Is Illuminated (Photo by: David Allen) |
“In many regards, it was a typical, small Eastern European settlement, one of many market towns in pre-World War II Eastern Europe. These towns had a significant Jewish population that spoke Yiddish and could be easily distinguished from the non-Jewish inhabitants of such towns (ethnic Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians). Trachimbrod fell under Soviet control in 1939. Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.”
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| Julien López-Morillas (Grandfather) and Lura Dolas (Old Woman) in a scene from Everything Is Illuminated (Photo by: David Allen) |
Foer's story (which borders on absurdity in the beginning but contains a Faustian bargain) deepens and darkens like a ghost story told around a campfire. By intermission, some audience members may be wondering whether they should stay for the second act. Rather than include any spoilers, I'll just say that Jonathan (Jeremy Kahn) and his guide, Alex (Adam Burch), end up traversing the Ukrainian countryside with Alex's supposedly blind grandfather (Julien López-Morillas) at the wheel of a beaten-up car. As Jonathan desperately attempts to find a woman named Augustine, they encounter an old woman (Lura Dolas) who has a much more compelling story to share. It's a tale that's been told a thousand times, but is delivered with a perverse twist to a hushed audience.
The four leads do an impressive job of letting Foer's words build the tension and drama required for the big reveal, with Marissa Keltie appearing as a series of minor characters. As the two Ukrainian men, Adam Burch and Julien López-Morillas turn in stunning performances. With anti-Semitism on the rise in the United States, modern audiences may squirm at the repeated use of the term "the Jew" in reference to Jeremy Kahn's character but, by the end of the play, they will understand its critical importance.
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| Jeremy Kahn appears as "The Jew" in Simon Block's adaptation of Everything Is Illuminated (Photo by: David Allen) |
Performances of Everything Is Illuminated continue through December 16 at the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley (click here for tickets).
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