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Le Noir is a bold and seductive and highly entertaining circus.

Circus Review (Singapore): Le Noir by Base Entertainment

Le Noir, the latest offering by Base Entertainment, will run at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre until April 7, 2013.

Highly sexualized and erotic, Le Noir is “sexy Cirque de Soleil”. Intimate, with the action occurring on a round set in the middle of seating areas all around, Le Noir is made up of segments of circus arts and gymnastic-like performances.

All the performers are highly trained and entertaining. The acts include a man balancing and doing gymnastic movements on a hoop suspended high above the ground, another male performer balancing on oversized hoops, two girls who look alike (sisters?) who do a beautiful duet gymnastic routine on a beam suspended high in the air, and a lady who balances on three thin poles while contorting herself into various positions and shapes.

Interspersed are girls, scantily clad, who dance and move seductively on stage, matching the tone of the dark and provocative show, which has three parts: a white theme, a red one, and a black, with performers outfitted according to those colours.

Performers after the intermission include a man juggling balls and another throwing, catching and balancing huge metal cube-like structures that he maneuveres at such fast pace that the objects refract the light in such a way that the metal looks like it is bending to form circles and softer shapes.

Another male performer then balances himself on cans and steel circular objects that roll and move as he adds more and more objects below him. The last act is a pair of skaters. The male skater moves in circles very fast while balancing the female skater in the air while she is attached to him by only a neck brace and at times with only the female’s skater’s feet secured around his neck.

Like most circus performances, there is a central clown in Le Noir as well. This clown is hilarious and his antics brought the house down with laughter on the night I attended. Without speaking a word of English, the clown uses hand gestures and grunts to get his comedy across, and he succeeds very well indeed.

There is a lot of audience participation, and the hilarity of the evening will depend on the audience members chosen on the night. On the evening I was in the audience, we had sporting and spontaneous people chosen who provided a lot of the laughs because they easily played against the clown, at times even doing what the clown (and the audience) wasn’t expecting.

The show is highly entertaining, it’s extremely fast paced, and the performers will thrill you to no end. This is a theatrical experience one absolutely shouldn’t miss.

About Sharmila Melissa Yogalingam

Ex-professor, Ex-phd student, current freelance critic, writer and filmmaker.

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