“Duel Reality” is a good name for the 7 Fingers troupe’s latest touring show, which opened Thursday at the Old Globe.
It’s both a 70-minute “duel” between two warring families of acrobats and a “dual” concept of circus arts and Shakespeare.
While the circus side of the Montreal company’s show is thrilling and death-defying, the story falls short of its promise.
Inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Duel Reality” pits the rival Capulet and Montague families against each other in a contest of athletics. As in the Bard’s play, Juliet Capulet (whose team is costumed in blue) and Romeo Montague (a member of the red team) fall in love, but their families’ pull them apart. Or at least they try. As opposed to the warring red and blue camps in American politics, these acrobatic families find unity.
This time last year, 7 Fingers made its debut at the Old Globe with the exceptional acrobatic theater piece “Passengers,” which was a series of vignettes about nine strangers traveling together in the same compartment of a passenger train. Circus acts were used to tell the characters individual backstories, both joyous and tragic. It was beautifully staged, creatively told and easy to understand, even without words.
“Passengers” was written, directed and choreographed by 7 Fingers co-founder Shana Carroll, who also conceived and directed “Duel Reality.” Where “Passengers” was hypnotic and atmospheric, “Duel Reality” feels like an extended battle of athletics with snippets of lines from “Romeo and Juliet.”
For aficionados of Shakespeare, which most Old Globe-goers are, very little of the Bard’s play or its characters are represented. And for non-Shakespeare fans, the lines of text from the play — which are projected on a screen in Old English font and spoken into microphones by the acrobats, most of whom speak English as a second language — don’t make much sense.
Plot aside, “Duel Reality” showcases exciting feats of acrobatics that are far more ambitious and dangerous than those performed last year in “Passengers.”
The Belgian teeter-board team of Danny Vrijsen (presumably Romeo’s best friend Mercutio) and Andreas de Ryck (Juliet’s cousin Tybalt) perform a hair-raising battle of athleticism that feels just as dangerous as the deadly duel fought by these rivals in “Romeo and Juliet.”
Also exciting was the contest between Chinese pole athletes Marco Ingaramo and Kalani June, who drop head-first from great height to catch their fall just an inches above the floor. And starring as Romeo and Juliet are the graceful Mexico City-raised acrobat and trapeze artists Gerardo Guitiérrez and Michelle Hernandez.
The show’s pulsing score is a mix of original music by Colin Gagné, Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet ballet score and sung lines from Shakespeare’s play. The show’s lighting design by Alexander Nichols makes colorful use of the Old Globe’s video wall.
Because the show is designed as a competition, audience members at the Globe are handed blue or red wristbands as they enter the auditorium and are encouraged to cheer for their side. A few dozen audience members are also seated onstage behind the acrobats to create an arena-like experience.
“Duel Reality” ends with the same line as Shakespeare’s play, “for never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” But in 7 Fingers’ version, there’s no woe to be found. “Duel Reality” does entertain, but it does in spite of the minimalist Shakespeare plot, not because of it.
The 7 Fingers presents ‘Duel Reality’
When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays. 8 p.m. Fridays. 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays. 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through 2 p.m. Aug. 4
Where: Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego
Tickets: $39 and up
Phone: (619) 234-5623
Online: theoldglobe.org
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