Experiencing Le Noir

Over the weekend, the husband and I went on one of the most spur-of-the-moment dates ever. (Or at least, as spur-of-the-moment as we can get, as parents!)

DD mentions on Fri night that we could ask his Dad, who is in town, to help babysit the kids on Sat evening. I told him it sounded like a good idea. On Sat afternoon, DD mentions that his Dad is available, I hop on my computer, and the next thing I know, we’ve got tickets to go catch Le Noir that very night. 

I was super excited! I’d been thinking about catching the show and was so tempted to go when there was a Groupon offer on the seats but the dates were not ideal. So when this opportunity dropped on us out of the blue, I grabbed it with both hands.

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the circus — DD is. And I was none too interested in Cirque du Soleil till we caught “O” in Vegas some 4 years ago and it was so out-of-this-world amazing that it totally changed my opinion of Cirque forever. With Le Noir, I wasn’t expecting anything of the grand scale of of “O”. Instead, I was most intrigued by the stage set-up, which featured a circular stage with the audience sitting all round, and even behind the stage. Billed as “the intimate side of cirque”, the show promised to let the audience enjoy the performance from inches away and get up close and personal with the action.

One to prove that we really were there!

It wasn’t inches away for us — we were only willing to plump for B Reserve tickets — but it was good enough.

The show was a real visual treat. While essentially a string of different acrobatic and other specialty acts, these were interspersed with short contemporary dance sequences and linked together by the use of the colours white, red and black. The performers start in pure white, transiting into raunchy red and ending in the darkness of black which is intended to depict “Le Noir”. There is also the comedic host who appears several times to link the different segments. Each time, some members of the audience were invited on stage to be part of the act, mostly with hilarious results.

There were many impressive performances and we each had our personal favourites. Aside from the spots of comedy, which we both enjoyed, DD liked the first act, which featured a performer performing acrobatic stunts with a ring that was suspended from the ground, the contortion hand balance artist, and another act with a guy performing acrobatics with just a pair of straps hanging from the metal frame on the ceiling. My favourite was the act with two chaps performing acts of balance and strength using only each other for support. I also really enjoyed the performance with one guy spinning metal frames. While it didn’t seem as difficult as some of the other performances, with the use of different coloured lights reflecting off the metal frames, it was visually arresting.

We both agreed that the scariest act was the Rolla Bolla. I totally had my heart in my mouth when the performer stood up on top of his board, balanced on seven free-moving cylinders, and then proceeded to turn himself on the board 360 degrees. Eeks. There were several points when I felt he was just going to roll off one of the cylinders! But of course he didn’t.   

It was a great night and we thoroughly enjoyed the performance. I don’t usually enjoy shows without a storyline that I can follow but this was pure entertainment.

Le Noir is on now till 7 April at the MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands. Tickets are priced at $35, $55, $95, $135 and $185 ($370 for a pair for the top tier tickets). Our tickets were from the $95 category and we thought the view and the experience was still really good. 

This is the last weekend so if you can, don’t miss it!