"Mysterious Land" - the name itself evokes curiosity and exploration. Indeed, the circus of the same name "launched" by the Southern Arts Theater right before the Lunar New Year 2025 has created an "earthquake" in the entertainment industry. Not only did all the shows "sell out" very early, "Mysterious Land" also covered social networks, becoming a "hot trend" keyword with countless reviews, comments and shares. What made this stage work such an unexpected success?
Circus but not only circus
When talking about circus, familiar images often appear in the minds of many Vietnamese audiences such as mischievous clowns, skillful juggling, acrobatics or dangerous rope swings. These are performances that have been associated with the childhood memories of many generations, watched over and over again for decades.
The circus show "Mysterious Land" is becoming the center of attention on the Vietnamese circus stage, attracting a large audience at Gia Dinh Park Circus.
However, in the context of modern society, the audience's demand for art enjoyment is increasing. They do not only want to see simple technical performances but also crave to enjoy works of art with profound content and new and unique forms.
Some domestic circus performances have also begun to pay more attention to building a coherent story to connect existing technical acts into a thematic program. This is a remarkable step forward, but there are still many limitations. Connecting separate acts into a story is sometimes just a formality, not really creating a close connection between content and performance form. The story is often simple, easy to predict, not attractive enough to attract and captivate the audience.
With dramatic performances, eye-catching stage effects and lingering emotions, "Mysterious Land" promises to change the audience's perspective on Vietnamese circus.
"The Land of Wonders" is not only a circus show with skillful technical performances, but also a unique work of art, a harmonious combination of circus, drama and music. The biggest difference of this play is a tight script, rich in literature, and a compelling storyline, captivating the audience from the very first minutes.
Inspired by a drought-stricken land, "The Mysterious Land" tells the story of the people's journey to find the "Heavenly Drum" to pray for rain. To get the magical drum, they must collect all 5 stones of the five elements: Metal - Wood - Water - Fire - Earth, each stone contains a power and a separate story.
The content of the circus revolves around the adventure of the main characters searching for five elements stones to pray for rain and save their land.
From there, the audience is led on 5 surprising journeys, exploring mysterious lands, meeting unique characters and experiencing difficult challenges. The story is not only entertaining but also contains meaningful messages about friendship, courage, solidarity and environmental protection awareness.
"The Land of Wonders" does not stop at simply telling a story but also uses circus language to describe developments and details. Circus artists not only perform technical performances but also transform into characters, expressing personality and emotions through body language, facial expressions and typical circus moves.
Up to now, the circus has quickly become a hot spot on social networks and attracted a large audience, from children to adults.
The creativity in storytelling makes "The Land of Wonders" more attractive, easier to understand and closer to the audience. Viewers not only get to admire the beautiful performances but also "live" with the characters, feeling the messages that the play wants to convey.
Developed from the work Mystery of the Deserted Island, Meritorious Artist Le Dien said that Mysterious Land was lucky to receive attention and investment of up to 1.5 billion VND from the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City. From there, Phuong Nam Arts Theater determined to perform a spectacular show with a unique combination of eye-catching scenery, vivid sound, 3D lighting technology... demonstrating the effort to "change clothes" of circus art to catch up with modern trends, meeting the increasingly strict requirements of the audience when enjoying art.
The circus show "The Land of Wonderland" is an innovative work of art, transforming an entertainment show into an exciting, fantasy-filled adventure experience.
The performances are a testament to the skillful circus techniques of the actors of the Southern Arts Theatre. More than 20 people performed throughout the play with high intensity and strict requirements. Each actor had to take on multiple roles, appear continuously and demonstrate many difficult skills. This is a huge challenge for the actors but is a common trend of the world circus arts. Each actor not only performed a few of their own individual specialties, but also had to perform a variety of forms according to the script's requirements.
They must use these stones to perform rain-praying rituals, hoping to bring life back to their land.
The young, energetic and highly skilled cast is the strength of the Southern Arts Theatre, which gives the creative team the opportunity to experiment with many impressive techniques. Director Nguyen Quoc Cong - a person with a lot of experience in the circus - has made the most of each actor's ability to create a collective strength, like a "football team" with both good players and a tactical coaching staff.
The audience watched for 2 hours, unable to take their eyes off the difficult, complex, challenging performances and continuously clapped their hands in admiration.
“The Beauty of Circus”
The strange attraction of "The Mysterious Land" comes not only from its unique content and performance form, but also from the "overwhelming" beauty it brings. Going beyond the prejudices of traditional circus, "The Mysterious Land" makes the audience amazed by the unexpected, delicate beauty in every moment.
The show broke the audience's previous prejudices about Vietnamese circus.
The lucky audiences who enjoyed "The Land of Mystery" from the first performances were amazed by the beauty of the work. They shared pictures and videos capturing impressive moments on social networks, creating a "fever" in the online community. Comments such as "Wow, what's so beautiful?", "Is this show in Vietnam?" appeared more and more, expressing the curiosity and surprise of the audience before a beautiful and impressive circus work.
From giant, colorful puppet models to modern laser props that can spark when hit, all are used creatively and effectively, creating surprising, beautiful effects.
Because of the extremely attractive and dramatic plot, "The Mysterious Land" has attracted many people to come and experience it.
Not only stopping at the scenery and props, "Mysterious Land" also strongly impressed the audience with unique and impressive stage effects. Fire dust flying from above, the stage flooded with water in the Water screen... are typical examples showing the endless creativity of the production team. These special effects not only increase the attractiveness of the circus acts but also create a multi-dimensional, vivid artistic space, making the audience unable to take their eyes off the stage.
Efforts to bring Vietnamese art closer to audiences of all ages
One of the key elements that makes "The Land of Wonders" so appealing is the element of surprise and unpredictability. The audience cannot predict what will appear on stage, from the skillful technical performances to the special effects, all of which are kept secret until the last minute.
Vietnamese circus is back closer to the audience thanks to quality performances and careful investment.
"The Land of Wonders" is not only a circus but also a visual feast, where the audience can admire beautiful performances, impressive effects and interesting surprises. The show has broken the limits of traditional circus, bringing the audience unique, new and emotional artistic experiences.
Audiences have high expectations for future performances.
The work proves that Vietnamese circus is completely capable of creating high-quality, beautiful works of art, meeting the increasing demand of audiences. Hopefully, the success of "Mysterious Land" will be a source of inspiration for the creation of many more unique and impressive circus works, contributing to raising the position of Vietnamese circus in the international arena.
