La Perle by Dragone

We decided to celebrate Midsommarafton itself up in Dubai this year. I had to go see my Goldman to pick some things up before the summer holidays, and then I had sourced a (fairly) new Scandinavian restaurant - Smørrebrød - not far from the Gold & Diamond Park, where we had a quick dinner.

It was hidden away in the Al Quoz area, and even though this restaurant mostly does catering they offered quite a big range of Scandinavian goodies. And, they even had a Midsummer pole!

Linnea and Nathan had pyttipanna, Lucas chose Swedish meatballs and I had a open prawn sandwich, yum! After having cinnamon rolls for dessert we continued in to Al Habtoor City. We were going to see the famous show 'La Perle by Dragone', the first permanent show in Dubai.

La Perle has been going now, daily, since August 2017, and the plan is that it will keep running for at least 10 years in this purpose-built aqua theater. This venue was absolutely stunning! It's a round, 1300-seater, 10-storey theater, where everything is a projection screen, the seats, the walls, the floor and the dome.

It was a massive production, over 65 performers from 23 countries.

The performers jumped into the pool from as high as 25 meters height. Most of the acts were indeed aerial, or aquatic. It was quite amazing to see the performers emerge from and disappear into that pool. 

The pool at the center of the stage has a capacity of 2,7 million liters of water, it can flood the rest of the stage up to 30 cm, and that area can be filled and emptied in 90 seconds. The pool in the middle is between 5-12 meters deep.
The water effects were super cool, they had waterfalls by the stage, and even made it "rain" inside the whole theater at one point!

The experience was completely all-enveloping, mainly thanks to the loudspeakers which were everywhere, apparently even under the water in the pool, to help the performers; and also thanks to the 270 degree seating configuration.

We admittedly didn't really grasp the entire idea of the story line, but enjoyed each part for what it was. We were rather disappointed as we could see the 'Globe of Death' suspended in the roof, and impatiently waited to see the motorcycle stunt I had seen advertised - but it never came. The show was also 15 minutes shorter than announced, so I guess something wasn't working with the globe. I don't know of course, but a shame missing out on what is supposed to be one of the biggest acts of the show.

I'm more of a classic circus fan, but for what this is - a more theatrical experience - it was amazing! The water and lighting effects are absolutely magical, and the way they used the pool was fascinating. I would go back again if I have visitors who want to see the show.