“Toruk – The First Flight”
Cirque du Soleil goes from the big top to the arena
This week you won’t have to do what I did last week, which was to do the freeway crawl to Ontario in order to catch “Toruk: The First Flight,” the latest spectacle from Cirque du Soleil. It’s coming to the Staples Center this weekend.
“Toruk” is based on James Cameron’s vision for “Avatar,” or rather the primitive race that inhabits the planet of Pandora. The show was written and directed by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, but Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment (based in Manhattan Beach) gave their input and their blessing to the project.
Cirque du Soleil shows generally have a certain theme and are comprised of scenes and vignettes that loosely adhere to it. With “Toruk,” the vignettes are more like sequences in a novel or film, with a through-line narrative that needs to be understood and followed closely if the viewer is to reap the full benefit. As with watching a movie, if you get lost along the way the end result won’t be as impactful or as satisfying.
“Toruk” is a traveling show, but without its trademark blue-and-yellow tent. While Cirque shows aren’t exactly intimate encounters, this one was conceived for an arena-sized venue and arenas aren’t known for encouraging subtlety. Also, there’s a different sensibility at play between entering an arena and entering a circus tent. One has the allure of old-time magic and one does not, and I trust you can guess which is which.
“Toruk” runs on puppetry, projection, and percussion, among other things (Cirque music is always both old worldly and unworldly). The “set” can be described as a huge, sprawling, ever-shifting canvas with stunning patches. On the one hand it has the palette of “What Dreams May Come,” with Robin Williams, and on the other it’s reminiscent of Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto.” Of course what it really depicts is the enchanted, primitive landscape of Pandora with its humanoid Na’vi inhabitants. In short, lots of lithe blue people with tails who scamper instead of walk.
The story itself doesn’t try to duplicate Cameron’s film, but takes place centuries before. Here’s how the creators have summarized it:
“When a natural catastrophe threatens to destroy the sacred Tree of Souls, Ralu and Entu, two Omatikaya boys on the brink of adulthood, fearlessly decide to take matters into their own hands. Upon learning that Toruk (a fearsome dragon) can help them save the Tree of Souls, they set out, together with their newfound friend Tsyal, on a quest high up in the Floating Mountains to find the mighty red and orange predator that rules the Pandoran sky. Prophecy is fulfilled when a pure soul rises among the clans to ride Toruk for the first time and save the Na’vi from a terrible fate.”
That may seem straightforward, but there are many details that will probably seem puzzling to the average viewer. As for developing any sympathy for the individual characters, that’s not really possible. They may have distinguishing personalities, but one is simply too far away to take notice of what they are.
In many ways, “Toruk” is quite dazzling. The advanced use of light projection, as when twin waterfalls seem to burst into and flood the arena floor, have a realistic effect. The visual landscape often changes, with nature alive and vibrant, and sometimes unsettling too, as when an earthquake rattles the calm and later a volcano erupts and spews brightly-colored magma.
But I think that in the end the parts are greater than the whole. These parts can, at times, be excellent, but the story is vague, and even for those who follow it their reaction is liable to be mixed. A few months back, this reviewer watched “Out of This World,” the most recent Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus extravaganza to swing through town. And although less sophisticated, it was more engrossing, maybe because it was simply trying to be entertaining instead of profound.
With “Toruk,” I think the timing would have been better if we’d just had “Avatar” or one of its four projected sequels in movie theaters. I enjoyed “Avatar” when I saw it back in 2009, but that was seven years ago and there’s really no immediate tie-in or other momentum that might attract a larger audience for a related stage show. In a way, it kind of jumps the gun.
One may not be disappointed, for this is a stunning production (sets, costumes, performers, the whole shebang), but some of that Cirque du Soleil magic and charm has gone missing.
Toruk – The First Flight is onstage Friday through Sunday at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. It returns, January 12 to 15, and plays The Forum in Inglewood. For tickets, go to cirquedusoleil.com/toruk. ER
