SEXY, slick and ever so slightly sick, La Soiree is best enjoyed with a glass of your favourite tipple and a healthy appetite for rib-tickling fun.
Part circus, part freak show, part camp cabaret, the show takes place in a big top, decked out like the Moulin Rouge with decadent art nouveau mirrors, carved wooden pillars and lavish upholstery.
Following on from the company’s success with La Clique, this conveyor belt of weird and wonderful circus acts from around the world would make Zippo blush, while at the same time green with envy at not having snapped up the freakishly talented stars first.
But then again, this show is not exactly child’s play.
So, roll up, roll up for the self-confessed rubber man of Norway, Captain Frodo.
Apparently blessed (or cursed) with an entirely double jointed body, the moustachioed Nord proceeds to squeeze his entire body through two small, stringless tennis rackets, dislocating his shoulder and merrily swinging his limp disjointed limbs around to squeamish squeals and gasps from the audience.
With the ice well and truly broken, the evening continues with a frenetic hula hoop dance from roller blading Marawa, Canadian female clown Mooky and darkly comic interludes by PVC-clad Miss Behave who has a fetish for swallowing knives and piercing her tongue with rose stems.
But stealing the show with their jaw-dropping and imaginative acrobatic routines are duo The English Gents.
Taking centre stage dressed in pin stripe suits and bowler hats, the pair effortlessly balance on each other’s shoulders, backs and heads as if they weighed as light as a feather.
But their phenomenal strength and impossibly ripped physiques don’t stay hidden for long and there’s plenty of eye candy for the girls (and a few boys).
Cranking up the sexual tension and turning up the heat to 11 is the now infamous bath boy David O’Mer.
Taking a soak in your jeans is not the most practical way to get clean but the topless Berliner makes it look as natural as tying your shoelaces with a pair of mittens on.
A combination of aerial ballet and Chippendale striptease, the audience was left speechlessly transfixed on O’Mer – the girls and the gays hoping to get a splash from his bath water and the guys holding tight to their partners in case they should leap into the tub and join the dreamy performer for a spot of unconventional rub-a-dub as well.
Free from the restrictive etiquette of conventional theatre, the audience are encouraged to leave their seats and search for a drink at any time, as well as cheer, whoop and applaud in ecstatic appreciation. And believe me you will.
It is impossible not to be seduced by La Soiree’s mix of heady energy, exuberance and eccentric performances.
The ultimate show to quell any double dip fears and austerity anxieties, it is, quite simply, devilishly brilliant.
La Soiree. South Bank Big Top, London. Until January 30. Call 0843 221 0999.
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