Ancient venue for new show

Shanghai

This is a theater of pedigree. The 83-year-old Gongwu Theater has seen Charlie Chaplin on its stage, and it has also seen Peking opera maestro Mei Lanfang perform.

But since Feb 3, the theater has played host to a very different genre, a poetic acrobatic performance that goes by the name of Kaleido.

A painted sky with gravity- defying stars rains flowers with crystal petals. Occasionally, the show dives into the ocean's depths - all smoothly executed with the help of high-tech machinery behind the scenes.

For spectators, the frame-like stage offers many mysteries to uncover and explore in the many installations on stage and off. As the audience focuses on actors dancing on the stage, it may be surprised by another acrobat flying across the hall seemingly from nowhere.

Often, they are themselves part of the show.

"I'd not call it interactive. The audience members are, in fact, participants in the show which aims to represent a group of passionate young people who are not content with just living in a world of gravity," says director Eric Villeneuve.

Villeneuve is also the director of award-winning Era, a local production that collected 226.5 million yuan at the box office from 2.2 million spectators in the past five years.

Kaleido has more high-tech details than Era, and it intends to set another milestone by employing more scientific methods to achieve dazzling special effects, says Villeneuve.

But a great show is not only due to technical brilliance, it also owes a lot to its human talent. The young acrobats are dressed in vibrantly colored costumes that draw inspiration from Chinese cultural elements such as ink calligraphy and Peking Opera.

A thought-provoking as well as entertaining show, a night at Kaleido brings spectators back to a childhood spent among grass-green lanes while transporting them into the high-velocity world of the future.

China Daily

(China Daily 02/13/2011 page15)