Theater: Cirque du Soleil Ka

Keywords

Cirque du Soleil - 'Ka' Theatre Schedule

Chicago Gigs

Cirque du Soleil - 'Ka'

Album

Songs

Video

Music

Ka is the latest creation from Cirque du Soleil. The show shown at MGM Grand combines acrobatic performances, puppetry, multimedia, martial arts and pyrotechnics to illustrate the nature of duality. It is the story of separated twins who start on a perilous journey to meet their linked destinies. ''Ka'' in the ancient Egyptian belief is an invisible spiritual duplicate of the body. Ka accompanies each and every human being throughout the present life and into the next. Ka is one of three resident shows Las Vegas. The show resides at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.

Ka is more like a Vegas production show than a characteristic Cirque production. The story is presented in a very straight-forward and easy to understand manner unlike the usual abstract visual presentations by Cirque. This is also the first Cirque du Soleil production that does not have live musicians playing.

There are, however, elements built into the show that attempt to lead the audience to believe that live music is played during the show. The most unique feature of Ka is that it is stageless. Most of the show occurs on a moving platform that doubles up as a stage and also as a video projection surface. There is a marked Asian influence on the costumes and on the soaring melodies. The advanced technical effects combined with the symbolic use of fire gives the show new dimensions. Each seat in the theater is equipped with stereo speakers at ear level. The varied tracks of audio are played either by the personal speaker or the house speaker. This creates an interesting surround sound experience.

There is multimedia projection utilized in the show that allows the system to take note of the location of individual performers and change the video content accordingly. This feature allows the video projection to interact with the performers and creating interesting environmental effects. The same technology is used in some movie theater lobbies. Ka follows the story of twin brother and sister who are heirs to the empire in an unknown land. But during the annual sword play royal family was attacked. Ka documents their strange and imginative encounters and the eventual epic battle against the attacker.

The music of Ka is composed by Rene Dupre. He also composed music for Cirque's Mystere in Treasure Island. But the music Ka is not played live during the show. That makes Ka the first Cirque production featuring music with full orchestra and chorus. It sounds more like a movie score than the sequenced music of usual Cirque productions.