The Famous Spiegeltent, Elder Park
This was a preview performance, but you would not have known it. Everything ran as smoothly as clockwork and the performance was up to its usual highly polished and professional standard. If you have seen LA CLIQUE before at a previous Fringe, than you will know just what to expect, except that it is now Festival event, with The Famous Spiegeltent relocated in Elder Park. It is still that same mix of circus, cabaret and burlesque, with a hint or two of vaudeville thrown in.
There are some acts that have been here before and a few that were new to me. The WauWau sisters performed an industrial strength trapeze act that left the audience amazed, but more details of these Sisters will be found elsewhere on the Glam Adelaide Performing Arts Reviews page when I review their show in the Fringe. Miss Behave is back, staggering drunkenly around the venue, taking the patrons' drinks, sculling a pint of beer and swallowing the leg of a table. She is we are told the only remaining female sword swallower in the world.
Ursula Martinez also has returned, once again performing her magic act, in which a small red handkerchief continually disappears, to reappear from unexpected places. She also gives a very witty lesson in less than polite Spanish, plays guitar and sings. A new act this time is the Skating Willers, Jean Pierre Poissonnet and Wanda Azzario, who have been performing their act for almost three decades. The speed a which they spin around, Azzario coming perilously close to serious injury time and again, is breathtaking. Old favourite Clarke McFarlane's creation, Mario, Queen of the Circus, hilariously revives the memory of Freddie Mercury whilst juggling and crowd surfing, and comic magician and musician, Carl-Einer Hackner generates loads of laughs with his chaotic nonsense.
Cabaret Decadanse bring their giant puppets to life in a bizarre cabaret and, before you realise just how long they have all been entertaining you, it is all over and the hours have slipped by. This is a high energy, high quality show that is sure to please its regular patrons and surprise newcomers.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, GLAM Adelaide Arts Editor, Wednesday February 24th 2010
Presented by The Adelaide Festival http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au
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