Dralion (podcast musings preview) I

Alexei Sayle doesn't like Cirque du Soleil. I understand why: Adorno's attitude towards collage (that it displaces meaning from the objects being collated) and Debord's description of the spectacle (in which everything has been turned into a commodity) are, more or less, exemplified by Dralion. Sayle's faith in Marxism ('Despite its flaws, Marxism still seems to explain the material world better than anything else') would undoubtedly put his aesthetic at odds with The Cirque. Dralion is a melange of pan-cultural influences (the name is a portmanteau of Dragon and Lion), with fragments of Indian, Celtic, South American music assimilated into the MOR rock sound. The beauty of the costumes - made from exclusive materials and designs by the company - and the brilliance of each routine emphasises display over content. Perhaps Sayle recognises the power of theatre, rather like Plato, and fears its negative impact on social order.

Either that, or he had a bad experience with a clown as a child.

Cirque du Soleil work on a different level to any other performance company that I have encountered. Their wardrobe needs more trucks than most productions need car seats, and they have four shows that are resident in Las Vegas - which makes them four times bigger than Britney Spears before the matter of touring is even considered. They have more types of shoelace in Dralion than the National Theatre of Scotland has cast members in Dusinane. 

Seven million people have seen Dralion, through its earliest incarnation as a 'big top' show. The version that comes to Glasgow is a retooled production for arena gigs. Stopping off for a week in the SEE Hydro, it has a longer run than Rod Stewart managed. Not that I'd especially want to see Rod these days...

Work on this kind of scale puts me in shock, in much the same way that climbing up the tower of The Sagrada Familia does, or listening to My Bloody Valentine (in their prime, rather than at T in the Park). It is popular beyond my understanding - I still think Rapture's Uncle Vanya  is populist, and it plays in East Kilbride.

And I had a bad experience with the circus as a child....