Invisible Cities

Wow, WOW – definitely the best show that I’ve seen at this year’s Brisbane Festival and definitely the best venue ever!

The warehouse worked perfectly – as the stage was huge and had no limitations.

Audience sat amongst the action.

Large screens were displayed around the stage adding amazing visuals throughout the performance and telling the story whilst set changes were made.

Surround sound was great, and music calming and relaxing.

A magical story line following Kublai Kahn (superbly played by Danny Sapani) who coerces Marco Polo (Matthew Leonhart) to visit his Kingdoms and together explore the topics of Questions, Language, Desire, Health, Memories and Despair.

Lovely period costumes and amazing water features and simple effective props (I loved the use of shopping bags and boxes and elastic rope to create a web).

The dance and movement was incredible but looking at the biography of the 20 plus dancers in the cast I’m not surprised- as they are from Rambert – the longest-established British dance company with dancers from around the globe.

I found the City of Monsters a bit disturbing- as the 3-headed, six-legged monsters were pretty scary – but cleverly choreographed.

But I loved the way the dancers walked on stilts and the setting for Venice with the arched bridges and real gondola on the canal was amazing.

The use of torches and lights to represent stars was also clever.

I came away from the production feeling uplifted and in awe of the incredible talent that was showcased.

Thank you director, Leo Warner, and team for showing how acting, dance, music, stage and light can combine to create pure magic.