La Clique’s Spiegeltent cabaret show, now in its 20th year, offers fun entertainment in a mock theatre tent bang in the middle of Leicester Square. The circular stage is tiny, but this versatile troupe make the most of the intimacy between performers and audience, whirling over our heads or stretched out so they can almost touch us. One act in which a couple perform a thrilling dance on roller skates comes with a warning to the front row not to try leaving their seats. The proximity to danger is all part of La Clique’s thrill.
To describe all the acts would be to spoil the surprise, but it’s enough to say the show features some extraordinary displays of acrobatics. Some are just that – feats of flexibility, strength and balance. Others suggest a story. One such begins, with a female hospital patient, extensively marked up for cosmetic surgery. Radiohead’s Creep (‘I want a perfect body’) is playing – we can see where this might be going. But the follow-up lacks drama, good as the trapeze work is.
The best acts are those with a wink of irony. Juggler Florian Brooks in Downton-esque black tie proceeds to perform whacky feats first with bamboo rings and then with clubs. But the best thing about him is his engaging persona. There’s some lovely stuff about his performing with a goldfish.
Australian Danik Absihev dazzles with his incredible hand-balances and strange ladder work. What he adds to his performing skills is a cheerful cheekiness, gradually turning himself into a male stripper. Bayley Graham gives us a variant of this, but his top-removal aims for sultry.
The stand-out performer is American comedian and circus performer Asher Treleaven. He may look like Mike Myers, with his giant glasses and old-fashioned suit, but that’s all part of the fun. As Sexy Diabolo Man, he interacts with hapless audience members, and it’s a delight.
The effectiveness of each show depends on the artists available and the freshness of the acts. This year’s incarnation of Spiegeltent perhaps lacks that something of its original freshness. It’s fun – and there are undoubtedly good performances. But it doesn’t take the imaginative risks of, say, Australian Briefs Factory or Argentinian Fuerza Bruta.
Runs until 5 January 2025
Circus fun
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