REVIEW: ‘Yuletide Factory’ is the Christmas show we need right now
Photo: Cirque Mechanics presents Yuletide Factory at the New Victory Theater in New York City. Photo courtesy of Maike Schulz / Provided by Rubenstein with permission.
NEW YORK — Yuletide Factory, presented by Cirque Mechanics, has set up shop at the New Victory Theater in Midtown Manhattan. This acrobatic and juggling extravaganza is actually an adaptation of an earlier Cirque Mechanics show called Birdhouse Factory; this time the workers are toiling away during the Christmas season, all in anticipation of the big day. Along the way, the audience is treated to mesmerizing feats of agility, athleticism and amazement.
The framing device for Yuletide Factory, which continues until Sunday, Dec. 29, is an assembly-line factory in the early part of the 20th century. The actors line up outside the gates, hoping to be selected for some work on the inside. It’s cold, dark and dank, which is not exactly the best environment to enjoy the Christmas spirit. When the employees head inside, wonderment and holiday cheer take over, and everyone is able to appreciate the silver lining at the grueling, grinding factory.
There are many acrobatic acts that take over the New Victory stage, eliciting applause from the crowd of youngsters and young at heart in the audience. Some of the best involve a German wheel and trampoline wall, but there’s also great fun with the juggling performers and clown routines. One performer uses a cane, hat and red ball to amazing effect, producing the best sequence of the entire 90-minute show.
In telling this tale, what Cirque Mechanics has created is a sophisticated circus that doesn’t play down to the children in the audience — quite the opposite actually. The performers build their acts around a central theme — Depression-era labor — and never stray from that main idea. They have the narrative play out on a simple set that has the hallmarks of an assembly-line factory. There are the swinging lights, the whistling furnace, the moving conveyor belt. There’s an almost Dickensian atmosphere that is achieved within the proceedings, as if the boss is Scrooge, and these workers find themselves working around the holidays like a 20th-century Bob Cratchit.
The circus acts are not the high-flying variety that oohs and aahs crowds in the big-top tents that set up in mall parking lots across the nation. Instead, this sophisticated circus is more intimate, but no less thrilling. The action is finely focused, often involving one or two performers. The actors don’t play to the crowd in the typical sense — that tried-and-true practice of failing during their first attempt, only to be cheered on for their second attempt. No, they are devoted to theatrical dedication and perfection for the entirety of the show’s duration. The fact that the most satisfying sequence involves a performer with a hat, cane and red ball should speak volumes to how effective Cirque Mechanics can be with humble props and simple sets.
This holiday season, New York City is chockfull with holiday theatrical fare. The Nutcracker is playing around town in a variety of productions. Elf has landed on Broadway, while Whoopi Goldberg is currently starring in Annie at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. Of course, those Rockettes are still kicking high at Radio City Music Hall. But, with a chill in the air and snowflakes on the horizon, one could do no better than heading to the New Victory Theater — a complex geared toward younger theatergoers — and having a seat for a circus spectacle that is rooted in history, labor rights and achievable, wondrous acts that provide a well-earned wow factor.
Yuletide Factory is perhaps the strongest Christmas entertainment in town.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Yuletide Factory, produced by Cirque Mechanics, continues at the New Victory Theater until Sunday, Dec. 29. Click here for more information and tickets.
