Lost in Translation brought their circus show Hotel Paradiso last night, for the second day, to Norwich's Chapelfield Circus which is now in its second year.
The premise behind the show is fairly simple. We are introduced to Madame and her charming/quirky staff of the ineffective Hotel Paradiso who are battling their arch enemy, the dastardly Banker. She is scheming to repossess the hotel and we follow their fight to try and keep their business open.
The story is told by six acrobatics who combine theatre with aerial performance, juggling, balancing, hula hoop work and gymnastic sequences.
Personally, I felt that the story was very weak and didn't really do much to carry the performance. There were a lot of moments where it felt like they were just running around erratically to fill gaps in the show rather than using their very impressive acrobatic skills to wow the audience.
What we did see, in terms of traditional circus performance, was very enjoyable and it was evident that they are all very talented individuals who can pull off all kinds of physical feats with graceful ease.
It was a shame that they didn't bring more of that to the performance and worry less about the story itself. Hotel Paradiso needed to go one of two ways - there either needed to be a stronger narrative or there needed to more acrobatics packed into the hour-long show.
One of the slickest parts of the show was the hugely comedic sequence featured around Annabel Carberry's (Mademe) hula hoop routine. It was a really simple idea: trying to pour and drink a glass of wine whilst spinning a gradually increasing amount of hoops around herself.
This segment of the show was massively impressive on it's own. Coupled with Carberry's hilarious facial expressions and perfect comedic timing, this side splitting and superb act was easily the best part of the evening.
It was difficult to determine whether my feelings on this show were down to the fact that I have very recently seen Cirque Eloize's Hotel at Norwich Theatre Royal.
Cirque Eloize was extraordinary, and one of the best shows I have ever seen, which has also subsequently set a standard for circus shows in my eyes.
Despite all of this I did really enjoy Hotel Paradiso. I strongly believe that if they just tidied up the storyline and threw in more acrobatic performance throughout that it would raise the show to the next level.
They are all, without question, very talented and I do hope to catch them in a future performance.
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