Cirque du Soleil's KA

Ka is very different from many of Cirque du Soleil's past productions in that it is decidedly darker in tone, and it tells a complete story over the course of its acrobatics. The circus acts and acrobatics are folded into a larger narrative, and instead of a traditional circus, Ka becomes more of a wordless fable told in grand, spectacular style. Highly elaborate sets and special effects add to the human spectacle of acrobats and performance artists.

Stage director Robert LePage was brought in to create the production, which roughly tells the story of two young princes who are destined to be king. At a ceremonial celebration, the kingdom comes under attack, the king and queen are killed, and the boys are separated during the chaos of escape. The show chronicles their separate journeys to find each other and to recapture the kingdom for its rightful rulers. There are harrowing mountain battles, flights from high platforms, dances with fire, and a centerpiece stunt with a so-called "wheel of death" (basically, an dangerously spinning, multi-part hamster wheel for humans).

The most remarkable thing about the spectacle is that performance area itself has no stage floor: a giant, independent hydraulic platform emerges from beneath the stage to spin around, raise into an enormous incline, then literally flip itself over and over with performers climbing all over it. One spectacular scene has performers climbing its face, then battling on it while hanging off "arrows" that have been shot into the surface. They bounce down the inclined stage into the pit below like balls in a larger-than-life pinballs. The finale is a particular technical marvel. Here, the audience observes an entire battle with a birds eye view, except that we're not above the performers at all. The stage floor has been raised to be completely vertical, and the performers are suspended on wires like marionettes, their choreography as much a choreography of strings and pulleys as it is one of acrobatics.

Amidst all of the spectacle, there are also some beautiful, touching moments in the show that involve nothing more than two actors on a level floor with very simple lighting effects. Resting in the woods, one of the boy princes and his caretaker entertain themselves by creating shadows of animals with their hands, and in another, the other boy prince falls in love with one of his captor's sympathetic flute players.

Even with all of the spectacle, the show is uncharacteristically dark and emotional for a Vegas show, or even a Cirque du Soleil show. In place of relentless dazzle there is a calculated reveal, an attempt to touch at viewers' hearts. It's a fantastic show in that way, but not one you might expect in a 90-minute casino spectacular.