Seattleplays.com review
By Tom Scanlon
Cavalia     closes July 5      Renton big top
                $23-165          
cavalia.net
Is it theatric? Absolutely.
   But is is theater? Maybe not . . .
Whatever it is,
Cavalia -- let's call it cirque du neigh -- certainly is entertaining. Staged in a big top (in a Boeing parking lot), it is for the most part big fun, with eye-popping acrobatics, dazzling horses, ingenious effects and projection-stagings, a hard-working cast and talented live musicians.
       The subtitle of the Canadian show is "A Magical Encounter Between Man and Horse" . . . so, yes, it gets a bit hoakey. At times, the technical things going on between man and horse -- or woman and horse -- is quite impressive, but undynamic; when things are slowed down for metaphors, the water gets muddy, indeed.
        But when
Cavalia is racing along with assorted physical things going on simultaneously, horses galloping and jumping and rearing on command, acrobats sumersaulting on horseback and spinning on wires, horses springing on and off "stage" with riders doing wild tricks -- the effect is marvelous, a sensational art-adrenaline rush.