Review: CIRQUE DU SOLEIL - TORUK - THE FIRST FLIGHT at Sportpaleis Antwerp

Take a trip to the land of imagination in Cirque du Soleil's Toruk, a new light Inspired by James Cameron's Avatar.

The First Flight is supposed to be a live experience where you can be part of the show with your smartphone. However. That did not work at all! The whole 'download the app and be part of the show' went down in flames. You had to wait until the first part of the second act to get some 'flashlight-action' on your phone going on. So that was a huge disappointment cause everybody was excited to be actually part of the show and supposedly see things through their phone during the play as promised. But it did NOT happen unfortunately.

The show itself is definitely big on production. The setting is amazing. The lighting is incredible as well and so are the costumes. If you are a big Avatar-fan this will give you the sensation you need cause you are (or could be) literally (if the app would function correctly) part of their world.

Where this Cirque du Soleil show is different from the other ones, is that it's less focused on acrobatics and more on storytelling. The energy throughout the whole show is grieve and sadness. Also the returning vibe in all the songs cause that's what the storyline is all about, a quest to succeed with a lot of struggles along the way.

The audience had little reaction to the few tricks they pulled on the stage. There was a lot of slipping an tripping during the acts. Even an actor who I talked after the show to said there was some messiness going on during the play. As a critical person you immediately notice such mistakes and that kind of takes you out of the story.

Overall I would recommend this show to people who would appreciate a story-telling art piece that's visually very appealing. But to the Cirque du Soleil-admirers who prefer some more action like a Ká/Zumanity/O vegas-show, they will be disappointed because the energy level is at an immensely low point.

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