Cirque Du Soleil: Saltimbanco

The first time I saw Cirque Du Soleil was last summer, with my family in Montreal. The theme was evolution, entitled TOTEM. And as much as I’d like to say that I loved them, I didn’t. I liked them, but I didn’t love them. I think they’re so overhyped that I had this great expectation from them and they didn’t meet it…

Several months since then, I heard that they were coming to Lebanon. A couple of old friends from Toastmasters were interested in going and so I thought I’d give them another chance with a lighter themed performance, SALTIMBANCO…

We arrived a couple minutes late, with the unorganized parking at Forum. We presented our tickets and quickly found our seats to watch the show. And it was just as I’d expected it to be, good but not good enough. But maybe I’m being biased here, because it wasn’t the greatest night for me...

During the intermission, I got a text message from my boss that tomorrow’s marathon had been postponed due to the current security situation. Shortly after, Dad called, telling me that several main roads in Tripoli had been blocked with burning tires and that they could hear gunshots. I checked BBM and my Twitter and Facebook timelines were all filled with the violence that was erupting back home in Tripoli. And of course I couldn’t concentrate on the show after that…

On the drive back, we got stuck in Jounieh for 2 full hours because they had cut off the highway in order to demolish the burnt carpet factory. After we got out of the traffic and got back on the main road, it was smooth… until we reached Chekka’s tunnel of doom, as I like to call it. The roads got darker and quieter until we reached Tripoli, by then a ghost city. And it all went downhill from there… :-(

N.B. SALTIMBANCO is playing at FORUM DE BEIRUT till MAY 20^TH.