La Soirée

With alternative late night cocktail cabaret influences of burlesque and a touch of camp a lá Spiegeltent, La Soirée wowed the audience again with its return season at the Playhouse last night. QPAC opened up the stage/backstage only for this intimate collage of a variety of international contemporary circus acts where most of the show is performed on a small circular stage with the audience in-round or seated in elevated rows. With the stage and atmosphere already set on arrival, the show had already begun .......

Designed to titillate, this show had enough entertainment to make you laugh until you cried, sometimes just out of fear of a slip or a fall, balancing the sublime between the ridiculous whilst ogling at every move up close and personal even, at times, reminiscent of Close Encounters of the X-rated Kind.

Some of the highlights included Nate Cooper's hilarious bumbling roller skate routine, so riveting on such a small stage including his incredible transformation into drag complete with sparkly high heels and knives as accessories, a captivating juggling Freddie Mercury tribute from Clarke McFarlanes's Mario, Queen of the Circus, and a couple of sexy, profoundly athletic male routines on the pole and even in a bath! Front row seats were given protection, possibly for more than one reason ....

But what had the audience gawking, grimacing and gyrating was Norse magician Captain Frodo. I mean who would ever consider trying to slip a stringless tennis racquet over your torso while waving your double-jointed arm out of whack in whatever interpretative symbolic gesture you may choose. Included in his tasty patter was a rumination directed at the cast's choice of bizarre activities while perched on the smallest of a diminishing group of containers with his legs wrapped around his neck. His aim was to become Rubberman (Marvel eat your heart out), why not and what about your secret passions?

What an interesting way to slowly wind up a bright, zappy fun-filled evening with plenty of laughs, pizzazz, great choice of songs and presentation and edge-of-seat-in-your-face entertainment. Take your grandmother, but not the kids!

Brian Adamson

Images: Cabaret Decadanse - Photo by James Henry and Jess Love - Photo by Max Gordon.