In an unadulterated blending of burlesque, cabaret, variety and modern vaudeville, 'La Clique' arrives at the Sydney Opera House, 20 years on from their first performance at Edinburgh Fringe.
Performed in The Studio, the intimate, multi-levelled space gives audiences on all four sides uninterrupted views of the central, circular stage. Produced and hosted by David Bates, 'La Clique' offers 80 minutes of wild, edgy, boundary-pushing entertainment performed by artists from around the world.
Paying homage to Bath Boy’s original 'La Clique' bathtub performance, Canadian aerial artist Tuedon Ariri opens the show with a mesmerising, sensual aerial straps act. She careens through the air, contorting and flipping her body into mind-bending shapes and gets the audience wet in the process.
Australia’s problem child of cabaret, Tara Boom performs a chaotic and absurdly messy number involving popcorn, hula hoops and a lot of salt and butter. Steer clear of the front row if you want to keep your outfit clean. Her second act is slower paced and much more relaxed, as she finesses the balancing act of juggling multiple parasols with her feet.
Image © Craig Sugden
Fire-breathing and sword-swallowing Heather Holliday takes the audience's breath away in both of her mesmerising numbers. Oozing vintage beauty, she entwines her way through the crowd as her acts get more and more death defying. I missed much of the sword swallowing number because I couldn’t bear to look. Her performance is utterly visceral and unforgettable, and is another one you want to wear protective clothing for if you’re in the front rows.
Arriving straight from Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace, Berlin-born Mirko Köckenberger performs a champagne tower balancing act, demonstrating his epic strength and balance. After climbing atop stacked champagne glasses four (champagne glass) storeys high, a gigantic champagne bottle is laid on its side, creating the unstable base the rest of this jaw dropping, hand-balancing act-turn strip tease number is performed on.
Mario Queen of the Circus delivers eccentric and bawdy Freddie Mercury-inspired numbers, juggling and crowd surfing and brimming with bizarre. David Pereira brings a welcomed change of pace, giving an operatic-sized performance on aerial silks, backed by the sounds of Puccini’s 'Tosca'. Wearing skin-coloured tights, his incredible musculature and physical prowess is spotlit as he pushes the limits of human performance in this gravity defying spot. His second number is silly and audience-involving, and shows off his insane flexibility – I’ve never seen so many naked angles of the human body before.
Lj Marles steals the show in an incredibly camp, aerial Lady Gaga spot using tension straps. They are an original apparatus of Marles’ invention which draw inspiration from other circus acts like X-pole, Chinese pole, aerial rope and silks. Marles’ spot thoroughly highlights his creativity and originality, his refined acrobatic skills, elegance, strength and stagecraft. I don’t think I’ve ever cheered so loud for an artist I’d not heard of until this show.
Image © Craig Sugden
The show closes with original cast member Ursula Martinez, who’s come out of retirement to perform her signature five-minute choreographed magic strip tease ‘Hanky Panky’. She delivers an extremely well-rehearsed spot and engages the crowd, taunting us with the disappearing hanky.
While the show left me aching for a live band, and some of the performances felt much better rehearsed and more refined than others, 'La Clique' offers a thrilling night out with hysterical, raunchy and jaw-dropping performances to the tunes of pop, electro-swing, opera and rock.
