Audio By Carbonatix
The Elixir is a collaborative effort, a circus-style extravaganza with jugglers, aerialists, burlesque dancers, snake-charmers and more that explores tension, beauty, and the human condition. “The elixir is a substance that all the performers in the show are competing for,” explains director Aaron Beck. “So there’s not really a defined meaning for it, but it’s the source of a lot of angst and conflict.”
The postmodern three-ring circus features multiple performances taking place simultaneously, choreographed to live music. “There’s this underlying and inescapable tension present throughout the whole production,” Beck notes, “and it comes from the portrayal of human vices like sensuality, sexuality, greed, power, lust, struggles with identity. There’s nothing more beautiful than that human experience. So we capture this in the size and grandeur of the circus arts, exaggerated and big, and also the teasing nature of burlesque and the composition of the music.
“Our goal as a circus is to really raise a curiosity about the world around us, and so I think we were very successful in this production with that,” he concludes.
Beck reports that some audience members in Durango, the only place the show has been put on so far, attended multiple performances so they could take in every aspect of the grand spectacle.
The Elixir runs tonight and tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Oriental Theater, 4335 West 44th Avenue; tickets to the eighteen-and-up show are $20 and can be purchased at 720-420-0030 or www.theorientaltheater.com. Visit www.saltfirecircus.com for more information.
July 8-9, 7 p.m., 2011
