From outside, the Spiegeltent is wood-panelled curiosity, but inside it's a glamorous Western saloon. The audience have their choice of gilded chairs or wooden booths, with walls lined with mirrors and technicolor glass. In one corner, a bar is stocked with heavily-branded cocktails from the Fringe's vodka sponsor, while in the other a heavy red curtain and a layer of smoke hides what is about to come.
It's hard not to be seduced before the show has even started; everything in this setting should be beautiful and beastly, prefixed with 'The Amazing', 'The Incredible' or 'The World Famous'.
LA CLIQUE does not disappoint, beginning as it does with corpulent drag-artiste La Gateau Chocolat bellowing out an epic 'Nessum Dorma'. What follows runs to traditional circus acts- aerial displays, juggling and unicycles- reinvented through a post-modern lens.
The Skating Aratas offer the old-fashioned thrill of watching a couple swing each other through the air on rollerskates.
Norwegian Captain Frodo squeezes his entire body through two tennis raquets, entertaining us as much with repartee as with his dislocated arm.
Mario, Queen of the Circus demonstrates what would have happened if Freddie Mercury had known how to unicycle, and the show's most photogenic act, acrobat David O'Mer, rises from a bathtub in dripping jeans, turning himself into the world's sexiest water fountain.
LA CLIQUE conjures up an air of living fiction, a spellbinding mix of showmanship and incredible talent utterly detached from normal life. Through all the tongue-in-cheek the circus sprit is intact; this show will as much inspire your spirit as it will shred your nerves. Emotions reach fever pitch at La Gateau Chocolat's rendering of Radiohead's 'Freak', his heartbreaking baritone serving to summarize the show itself.
Witty and aware of its freakshow roots, LA CLIQUE is world-wise, inventive and endlessly dazzling. Catch it now in its last year at the Fringe, before it disappears in a theatrical puff of smoke.
LA CLIQUE runs at the Spiegeltent til September 20th see https://dublinfringefest.ticketsolve.com for details and booking
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